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CAPTAIN  AMYAS 


By  the  same  Author 

THE  STORY  OF  EDEN 
THE    R  AT-TR  A  p 


Being    the    Career    of    D'Arcy    Amyas, 
R.N.R.,late  Master  of  the  R.M.S.  Princess 


There  is  not  a  war  in  the  world,  no,  nor  an  injustice,  but 

you  women  are  answerable  for  it  ;  not  in  that  you  have 

provoked,  but  in  that  you  have  not  hindered.  . 

There  is  no  suffering,  no  injustice,  no 

misery  on  theearth,  but  the  guilt 

of  it   lies    with    you." 

—  Ruskin 


re  the  making  or  the  marring  of  a  man.       When 
we  see  him  ruined,  by  whatever  vices,  we  may  know 
that  the  women  influencing  his  life  have  failed 
in  their  task." 


NEW  YORK  AND   LONDON 


Copyright,  1904 
BY  JOHN  LANE 


FIRST  EDITION,  OCTOBER,   1904 


Set  up  and  Electrotyped  by 
THE  HUBLET  PRINTING  Co.,  LTD.,  YORK,  PA.,  U.S.A. 

Printed  by 
BRAUNWORTH  &  Co.,  BROOKLYN,  U.   S.   A. 


TO   THE  NATION 

"  fery  rightly  many  tf  us  have  been  insisting,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  upon 
tie  maintenance  of  an  overwhelmingly  strong  British  Navy,  but  meanwhile  tbi 
Mercantile  Marine  of  Great  Britain,  without  which  the  Navy  is  useless,  has  teen 
allowed  to  drift  into  such  a  position  that  we  may  wake  uf  any  morning  and  find 
that  it  no  longer  exists." 

FRANK  T.  SULLEN 


What  will  you  give  them,  England  ?     The  Masters  of  the  Sea  ! 
Hardly  a  Caftain  among  them  save  by  title  of  courtesy, 
But  they  own  the  sternest  prefix  of  any  that  yet  may  be. 

They  have  fed  your  teeming  millions  from  inaccessible  lands  ; 

They  have  carried  four  troops  to  battle — read  the  record  as  it  itandi  ! 

They  look  for  no  recognition,  Master  or  'Foremast  Hands. 

They  go  at  the  word  of  an  Owner  where  your  Navy  scarce  dare  go, 
Down  to  the  Horn  that  if  ares  not,  and  up  to  the  deathly  Floe  ; 
There  it  never  a  sea  that  daunts  them,  a  peril  they  do  not  know. 

They  are  trained  by  the  storm  and  the  breakers  when  the  scud  is  flying  free  j 
They  are  drilled  by  the  racking  night  watch  while  the  aching  hours  flu  ; 
Tour  Navy  fghts  with  your  foemen,  but  your  Masters  Jtgbt  the  sta. 

Slighted  like  a  Militia — looked  on  with  scorn  and  doubt ; 
(Harder  trained  than  your  Navy,  and  workedyear  in, year  out !) 
Forty  per  cent,  not  British — who's  Britain  to  care  about? 

If  your  Empire  at  sea  is  threatened,  on  these  you  must  call  to  serve  ; 
Mocked  with  their  training  and  titles,  you  must  trust  them  not  to  swerve— 
The  Men  of  the  Merchant  Service,  and  the  Royal  Naval  Reserve. 

Look  to  your  bulwarks,  England!     Look  to  your  flag  unfurled  / 
Point  in  pride  to  your  Navy,  the  greatest  in  all  the  world. 
And  what  of  the  sister  Service  across  your  oceans  hurled? 

ffbat  will  you  give  them,  England?     A  grudging  retaining  fet  j 
Neither  position  nor  credit,  training  nor  real  degree,— 
The  Men  of  your  Merchant  Service,  the  Masters  tftht  sea  I 


CAPTAIN    AMYAS 


CHAPTER  I 

"  Drake,  he  was  a  Devon  man,  an'  ruled  the  Devon  seas, 

(Capten,  art  tha  sleepin'  there  below  ?  ) 
Rovin'  tho'  his  death  fell,  he  went  wi'  heart  at  ease, 

An'  dreamin'  arl  the  time  o'  Plymouth  Hoe. 
'  Take  my  drum  to  En'gland,  hang  et  by  the  shore, 

Strike  et  when  your  powder's  runnin'  low ; 
If  the  Dons  sight  Devon,  I'll  quit  the  port  o'  Heaven, 

An'  drum  them  up  the  Channel  as  we  drummed  them  long 
ago.'  " 

HENRY  NEWBOLT 

THREE  children  were  standing  at  the  crossroads 
playing  at  .ball.  The  crossroads  are  really  more  of 
a  triangle,  an  irregular  open  space  where  the  little 
lane  that  climbs  up  from  Trawles  is  sucked  into  the 
big  road  that  runs  to  Exeter,  exactly  as  a  big  river 
sucks  in  a  tributary  stream,  for  though  the  lane 
actually  crosses  it  and  meanders  on  into  the  coun- 
try beyond,  it  becomes  little  more  than  a  footpath 
on  the  further  side  of  the  highway. 

The  game  was  one  of  their  own  invention,  and 
consisted  in  passing  the  ball  so  rapidly  from  hand 
to  hand  that  none  of  them  could  count  three  before 
it  had  passed  from  D'Arcy  to  Dorothy,  and  from 
Dorothy  to  Nell.  That  their  chosen  playground 
was  the  frequent  resort  of  carts,  and  that  their  law- 

9 


io  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

less  disregard  of  warning  shouts  obstructed  and  an- 
noyed the  traffic,  added  to  the  charms  of  the  situa- 
tion. To  get  sufficient  space  for  the  throw  Nell 
stood  half-way  up  the  bank  of  Trawles  Lane, 
D'Arcy  was  on  the  further  side  of  the  road,  and 
Dorothy  was  in  the  middle  of  the  road  itself,  with 
her  back  to  Exeter  five  miles  away.  They  had 
placed  her  there  because  she  was  the  youngest,  and 
less  nimble  than  Nell  in  getting  out  of  the  way  of 
carts  or  pedestrians,  which  were  infrequent  from 
Exeter,  and  she  had  just  succeeded  in  letting  the 
ball  through  her  fingers  and  dropping  the  record, 
which  had  reached  twenty. 

"  Butter-fingers !  "  said  Nell  viciously,  with  a 
stamp  of  her  bare  foot  into  the  deep  grass  in  which 
she  was  standing. 

"  The  ball's  so  hard — et  hurts  my  hands  !  "  said 
Dolly,  brushing  her  yellow  hair  back  from  her 
sweet  little  face,  and  looking  up  with  eyes  as  start- 
lingly  blue  as  the  speedwell  growing  by  the  road- 
side. The  Germans  call  this  flower  "  Man's  faith," 
because  it  is  so  quickly  shattered,  but  its  colour  was 
never  rivalled  by  any  painter  mixing  cobalt  or  Prus- 
sian blue  on  his  palette.  Dorothy,  by  instinct, 
directed  her  appeal  less  to  her  sister  than  to  the 
masculine  element  present.  She  looked  at  D'Arcy, 
who  possessed  the  added  vulnerability  of  not  being 
even  kin  to  her. 

"  Don't  be  a  muff,  Dolly !  "  was  his  answer,  but 
he  picked  up  the  ball  and  threw  it  back  to  her  a 
shade  less  swiftly  than  before. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  11 

From  D'Arcyto  Dorothy — Dorothy  to  Nell — Nell 
back  to  D'Arcy — to  and  fro  flew  the  ball  as  quickly 
as  the  eye  could  follow,  adding  upwards,  in  the 
children's  growing  proficiency  at  the  game,  from 
thirty  to  forty.  As  it  neared  fifty  their  excitement 
became  intense,  for  they  had  never  reached  so  high 
a  number  before.  Even  Dorothy  was  too  absorbed 
to  notice  the  sound  of  a  horse's  hoofs  behind  her, 
and  did  not  alter  her  central  position  in  the  road. 
The  approaching  horseman  was  hidden  from  Nell, 
but  D'Arcy  could  see  him — a  tall,  broad  man  on  a 
powerful  horse,  riding  somewhat  carelessly,  and  evi- 
dently not  very  regardful  for  the  small  figure  in  his 
path.  D'Arcy  supposed  that  the  child  had  heard 
something  coming  and  would  move  ;  but  Dorothy, 
in  her  interest  in  the  game  and  strained  attention 
not  to  slip  again,  knew  nothing  until  the  horse's 
breath  was  absolutely  on  her  neck  and  the  rider's 
"  Hulloa !  "  in  her  ears,  when,  with  a  terrified  cry, 
she  sprang  aside,  lost  her  balance,  and  fell  prone  on 
the  good  red  soil  of  Devon,  her  bare  feet  almost 
under  the  horse's  hoofs. 

Before  D'Arcy  could  run  to  the  rescue — and  in- 
deed he  had  not  much  intention  of  doing  so,  being 
used  to  see  his  own  sister  and  his  girl  playmates  in 
general  pick  themselves  up  unaided — the  horseman 
had  dismounted,  lifted  the  trembling,  crying  child, 
and  set  her  on  her  feet.  He  was  a  big  man,  in- 
clined to  stoutness,  with  a  handsome  hairless  face, 
and  a  full  red  mouth  peculiarly  noticeable  from  his 
lack  of  beard.  He  kept  his  hands  on  the  child  as 


12  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

if  to  steady  her,  and  spoke  in  a  rich  voice,  kindly 
enough. 

"  Now,  little  maid,  what's  the  matter  ?  You're 
not  hurt,  are  you?  I  thought  you  would  surely 
move  out  of  Sultan's  way  !  " 

Dorothy  was  more  frightened  than  hurt.  She 
looked  up  out  of  the  falling  frame  of  her  golden 
hair,  with  eyes  like  drenched  stars,  and  the  tears 
rolling  down  her  sun-kissed  cheeks.  She  had  the 
beautiful  Devon  skin,  clear,  but  burnt  like  a 
peach. 

The  two  other  children  moved  up  side  by  side, 
staring  at  the  stranger  with  a  steadiness  which  sug- 
gested more  knowledge  of  him  than  he  had  of  them. 
All  three  were  barefoot,  the  boy's  strong  legs  hardly 
more  browned  by  sun  and  sea  than  the  girls',  but 
though  he  was  hardily  dressed  in  a  fisherman's  blue 
jersey  and  cap,  he  was  more  cared-for  and  less  rag- 
ged in  appearance  than  the  two  little  girls,  whose 
frocks  seemed  to  have  been  weather-beaten  to  a 
nondescript  shade,  and  were  plentifully  patched  and 
mended.  A  slender,  rough-haired  little  fellow  he 
was,  with  blue  eyes  somewhat  narrowed  at  the  cor- 
ners as  if  from  a  habit  of  gazing  far  ahead,  deli- 
cately-moulded features,  and  the  subtle  atmosphere 
of  belonging  to  gentlefolk  about  him,  in  spite  of 
his  careless  bare  feet.  The  horseman  looked  at 
him  while  he  still  held  Dorothy. 

"  Well,  whose  boy  are  you  ?  " 

"  I  am  D'Arcy  Amyas." 

"  Captain  Amyas'  son  ?  " 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  13 

«  Yes." 

He  waited  breathless,  as  if  afraid  that  he  would 
be  asked  the  parentage  of  the  little  girls,  but  his  in- 
terlocutor did  not  pursue  the  subject.  He  was  ab- 
sorbed with  Dorothy,  to  whom  he  offered  a  ride  on 
his  horse  as  consolation  for  her  fall,  but  she  declined, 
shrinking,  and  still  frightened. 

"  Well,  Blue-eyes,  I  can't  do  anything  for  you 
then  !  Got  over  your  fright,  eh  ?  That's  all  right. 
Good-bye,  little  one."  He  lifted  the  child  and 
kissed  her  smooth  flushed  cheek,  with  a  smile  as  he 
set  her  down.  "  You've  got  a  golden  head  of  your 
own  !  "  he  said.  "  Come  and  get  under  my  horse's 
feet  and  let  me  pick  you  up  in  ten  years'  time,  little 
maid! " 

As  he  rode  away  D'Arcy  and  Nell  turned  and 
looked  after  him  with  unsmiling  faces. 

"  It's  the  vicar ! "  D'Arcy  said,  staring  at  the 
broad  upright  back,  though  the  rider  had  worn  no 
clerical  garb. 

"  Yes,  I  know,"  said  Nell  fiercely.  Her  small 
brown  face  worked,  and  she  clenched  her  tiny  hands. 
Nell  was  like  an  elf — her  hair,  eyes,  and  skin  were 
different  shades  of  tan,  and  she  was  moulded  with 
the  dainty  lightness  of  a  fairy  race.  Both  the  elder 
girl  and  boy  stood  gazing  after  the  figure  on  horse- 
back until  recalled  to  Dorothy  by  her  sobbing 
cry. 

"  I  wish  he  hadn't  kissed  me ! — his  face  was  all 
horrid  and  rough.  I  wish — I  wish  he  hadn't  kissed 
me!" 


14  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  Don't  sniff,  Dolly,"  said  Nell  impatiently.  "  You 
were  a  little  silly  all  through.  I  wish  he  had  offered 
me  that  ride  on  his  horse  !  " 

"  Why,  Nell,  you  couldn't  have  taken  it,"  D'Arcy 
said  decidedly,  "  knowin'  who  he  is  !  " 

"  Yes ;  but  I  wish  I  hadn't  known  who  he  was — 
then  I  could  have  had  the  ride,"  said  Nell  with  a 
strange  sigh.  Her  brown  eyes  widened  and  dark- 
ened into  unchecked  longing,  and  her  small  breast 
rose  with  a  sigh  too  long  for  a  child.  "  We  must 
go  home ;  and  you  will  be  late  for  your  tea,  D'Arcy," 
she  said.  She  made  no  mention  of  their  own  tea, 
meals  were  few  and  far  between  in  their  wretched, 
poverty-stricken  home.  Nell  and  Dorothy  often 
went  hungry. 

"  Come  back  with  me  and  have  tea,"  said  D'Arcy 
kindly,  seeing  the  droop  of  the  younger  child's  little 
red  mouth.  But  Nell  was  firm. 

"  No,  we've  been  to  you  three  times  this  week — 
we  can't  sponge,"  she  said  briefly.  "  Come  along, 
Dolly."  She  seized  her  sister  by  the  hand  and 
turned  her  round  towards  Trawles.  "  Good-bye ! " 
she  said,  with  a  nod  at  D'Arcy  over  her  shoulder. 

"  Good-bye,  Dolly ! "  he  responded,  hardly  con- 
scious of  his  own  significant  ignoring  of  Nell.  But 
it  was  Dolly's  yellow  hair  he  followed  down  the 
lane,  as  the  sisters  raced  ahead  of  him,  and  Dolly's 
hunger  and  disappointment  in  missing  a  share  of 
his  tea  that  he  dwelt  upon  as  he  sauntered  home. 
Nell  did  not  matter.  Nell  shifted  for  herself.  If 
D'Arcy  had  sympathized  with  her  she  would  have 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  15 

shut  him  out  with  some  fragment  of  elfish  philos- 
ophy which  would  have  left  him  vaguely  wonder- 
ing why  Nell  knew  these  things.  But  he  would 
have  liked  to  have  taken  Dolly  home  to  tea,  and 
shared  bread-and-jam  with  her — turn  and  turn 
about  to  bite  close  up  to  the  crust — and  to  sit  with 
his  brown  hand  clasped  over  her  little  one  when  no 
one  was  looking  on  or  likely  to  laugh.  D'Arcy 
was  eleven,  four  years  older  than  pretty  Dolly  with 
her  Devon  face,  and  he  called  her  a  baby  and 
petted  her  as  the  mood  took  him. 

The  lane  led  down  into  the  heart  of  Trawles,  and 
D'Arcy  followed  it,  past  the  water-mill  where  he 
loitered  to  watch  the  mossy  blades  dipping  in  the 
sunset,  past  the  brawling  stream  which  ran  through 
Trawles  into  the  sea,  quarrelling  over  its  stones  after 
the  true  fashion  of  Devon  streams — down  to  the 
very  sea-front  itself,  where  his  father's  old  white 
house  stood  eternally  fronting  a  waste  of  smooth 
sea,  breaking  on  the  shore  with  a  long  sigh  as 
monotonous  as  of  some  human  grief.  When  Cap- 
tain Amyas  left  the  sea  he  set  himself  down  as  near 
it  as  might  be,  and  established  his  dwelling  where 
he  might  hear  and  see,  night  and  day,  the  element 
on  which  he  had  lived  for  the  best  part  of  his  life. 
The  Navy  did  not  want  him  any  more,  but  the  sea 
did.  In  his  blue  serge  coat,  with  his  strong  glass 
under  his  arm,  the  old  man  used  to  pace  up  and 
down  the  sea-front,  staring  out  past  the  inner  ring 
of  the  Seine  or  the  outer  ring  of  the  trawlers  and 
their  forty  nets,  to  the  round  blue  horizon  where 


16  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

haply  some  ship  of  battle  might  be  visible  a  mo- 
ment to  longing  eyes. 

The  sea  was  D'Arcy's  earliest  recollection,  and 
the  atmosphere  in  which  he  so  entirely  existed  that 
it  might  be  said  to  colour  his  view  of  life.  He  saw 
things  through  the  sea,  as  it  were,  and  its  voice  was 
as  familiar  to  him  as  the  voices  in  his  home.  Since 
his  ninth  birthday  he  had  been  to  school  in  Exeter, 
so  that  for  six  days  of  the  week  he  became  a  lands- 
man, shut  off  from  blue  water ;  but  he  spent  Satur- 
day to  Monday  in  his  home,  and  the  first  welcome 
of  the  sea  had  grown  to  be  to  him  a  moment  for 
which  he  looked  out  as  regularly  as  Captain  Amyas' 
"  Well,  my  boy  !  "  from  the  square  armchair  by  the 
dining-room  fireplace.  The  rail  ran  out  to  the 
coast  from  Exeter,  and  for  a  moment  as  the  train 
took  the  curve  and  swung  along  the  beach,  it  looked 
as  if  one  were  flying  straight  out  into  the  water. 
When  there  was  anything  of  a  sea  the  waves  used 
to  break  right  over  the  carriages,  and  D'Arcy  had 
been  secretly  culpable  of  letting  down  the  carriage 
windows  to  feel  the  spray  dash  in  and  kiss  his  face 
— the  sea-mother's  keen  glad  welcome  to  her  boy. 
The  taste  of  the  salt  on  his  lips  was  as  a  blessing. 

This  ingrained  love  of  the  sea  was  to  D'Arcy 
Amyas  what  a  great  inspiration  might  be  to  a 
young  genius.  He  spoke  of  it  no  more  than  a 
man  speaks  of  his  religion ;  it  was  deep  down  at 
the  fibres  of  his  being,  but  nourished  by  every  acci- 
dent of  his  existence.  His  father's  stories  of  his 
life  while  in  the  Navy,  and  coming  in  contact  with 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  17 

those  friends  who  still  visited  him  and  talked  of  old 
commands,  and  queer  shifts  in  distant  naval  stations, 
were  enough  to  set  any  imaginative  boy  dreaming. 
Had  his  mother  lived  the  bent  of  D'Arcy's  mind 
might  have  taken  another  direction  with  equal 
force,  for  whatever  took  possession  of  him  did  so 
with  a  completeness  unsuspected  by  the  little  circle 
which  made  his  world.  But  as  things  were,  his 
father's  influence  was  paramount  in  his  life,  and 
Alfred  Amyas  was  first  and  last  a  sailor.  D'Arcy 
was  not  a  talkative  boy,  and  so  boyish  in  his 
apparent  tastes  and  pursuits  that  the  suspicion 
of  a  highly-strung  nature  had  never  attached  to 
him. 

Drake  House  faced  sheer  on  to  the  sea-wall,  with 
a  narrow  strip  of  trim  garden  in  front;  D'Arcy 
went  straight  in  at  the  open  door,  and  felt  about  in 
a  corner  of  the  dusky  hall  until  he  found  some  sand 
shoes,  which  he  slipped  on  to  his  bare  feet.  He 
went  shod  in  Exeter,  but  no  sooner  did  he  get  back 
to  Trawles  than  he  kicked  off  shoe-leather  and  con- 
ventionality together,  and  enjoyed  himself  as  much 
as  a  colt  out  at  grass  before  the  shoes  are  nailed 
on.  It  was  a  rule,  however,  that  he  should  wear 
shoes  in  the  house,  and  not  leave  the  trail  of  his 
wet  or  muddy  feet  up  and  down  the  old  staircases. 
As  he  stood  in  the  hall  tying  his  shoe-strings,  a  girl 
ran  lightly  down  the  shallow  staircase  at  the  further 
end,  followed  by  a  boy  some  years  younger  than 
D'Arcy. 

"  Where  have  you  been,  D'Arcy  ?  "  she  asked, 


1 8  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

pausing  by  his  side.  "  Mother  was  afraid  you 
were  with  that  dreadful  Bertie  Culverton,  but  I 
know  you  haven't  been,  because  Jack  saw  him  half- 
an-hour  ago  with  the  trawling  boats.  He  must 
have  been  out  with  them." 

"  I  was  playin'  quick-catch  with  Nell  and  Dolly 
most  of  the  time,"  said  D'Arcy  carelessly.  "  I 
haven't  seen  Bertie.  What's  against  him  ?  " 

"  Oh — well !  "  His  step-sister  hesitated,  half 
afraid  of  her  own  accusation  now  it  was  de- 
manded in  form.  "  You  know  he's  runnin'  dread- 
fully wild,  and  gettin'  quite  like  the  fisher-boys." 

"  Don't  see  what  chance  he  has  to  do  anythin' 
else,"  said  D'Arcy,  flinging  his  fisherman's  cap 
down  on  to  the  hall  table.  "  Where  have  you 
been,  Jack  ?  " 

"  With  Jasper,  pickin'  up  cowries,"  said  the  little 
boy.  Jack  Amyas  was  of  a  shorter,  darker  build 
than  either  D'Arcy  or  Millicent,  who  resembled 
each  other  through  a  mutual  resemblance  to  their 
father.  Jack  was  a  bullet-headed  little  fellow  with 
a  quaint  grave  face  and  brown  hair.  His  opinion 
of  himself  was  nil,  and  his  opinion  of  D'Arcy  was 
boundless.  His  admiration  of  his  step-brother  met 
with  some  return,  for  D'Arcy  was  fonder  of  Jack 
than  of  any  other  human  being  in  his  present  life 
— his  father  always  excepted.  He  made  Jack  fag 
for  him  of  course,  but  he  "  chummed "  with  his 
little  brother  far  more  than  he  did  with  any  of  the 
boys  at  Exeter  though  nearer  his  own  age. 

"  Dad  has  got  a  friend  with  him,"  said  Millicent. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  19 

"  They  want  to  see  you,  D'Arcy.  They've  been 
askin'  if  you  were  in." 

"  Who  is  it  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  He  came  down  by  the  after- 
noon train.  They're  in  there  " — she  nodded  at  the 
closed  door  of  the  dining-room. 

"  All  right,"  said  D'Arcy  carelessly.  "  I'll  go  in 
and  see  them  first,  and  come  to  tea  afterwards. 
Don't  wait  for  me." 

But  he  knew,  as  he  turned  the  handle  of  the 
dining-room  door,  that  neither  Jack  nor  Millicent 
would  dream  of  beginning  their  tea  without  him. 
The  September  day  was  closing  in,  and  the  old 
oak-panelled  room  was  growing  dusky.  D'Arcy 
could  hardly  see  which  was  his  father  and  which 
the  guest  in  the  two  figures  sitting  by  the  table. 
The  gentlemen  were  both  smoking,  and  had  a  glass 
apiece  of  whisky-and-water.  As  D'Arcy  stood 
hesitating  at  the  door  he  heard  the  guest  speaking, 
and  wondered  where  he  had  heard  that  clear 
resonant  voice  before.  It  was  some  one  he  knew, 
and  yet  he  did  not  know  well,  for  he  could  not 
recall  his  name.  At  that  moment  the  gentleman 
turned  and  saw  the  small  figure  waiting  to  come 
forward. 

"  There's  your  boy,  Amyas,"  he  said.  "  Come 
along  here,  sonny.  We  want  to  look  at  you." 

Recollection  flashed  back  upon  D'Arcy's  mind. 

"Of  course!"  he  thought.  "It's  Mr.  Saver- 
nake." 


CHAPTER  II 

"  For  me  there's  nought  I  would  not  leave 

For  the  good  Devon  land, 
Whose  orchards  down  the  echoing  cleeve 

Bedewed  with  spray-drift  stand, 
And  hardly  bear  the  red  fruit  up 
That  shall  be  next  year's  cyder-cup." 

HENRY  NEWBOLT 

MR.  SAVERNAKE  was  a  man  about  fifty  years  old, 
even  as  seen  in  the  half-light — which  Captain 
Amyas  immediately  altered  by  ringing  for  candles 
— and  his  shrewd  face  was  exactly  in  accordance 
with  his  voice.  His  hair,  and  the  little  side- 
whisker  on  either  side  of  his  face,  were  grizzled, 
and  a  fine  network  of  wrinkles  encased  his  eyes. 
His  mouth  was  fine-lipped,  and  drawn  downwards 
like  an  inverted  half-moon,  but  for  all  that  his 
general  expression  was  cheerful  rather  than  lugu- 
brious. Life,  as  he  had  seen  it,  had  not  tended  to 
an  upward  curve  of  his  lips ;  he  was  rather  lightly 
cynical,  and  inclined  to  raise  his  eyebrows  at  man- 
kind in  general,  for  he  was  a  partner  in  the  great 
shipping  firm  of  Savernake,  Cross,  and  Savernake, 
and  had  learned  to  read  men's  faces  and  guess 
their  errands  to  himself  beforehand.  Humanity 
consisted  of  two  kinds  of  men,  he  said — the  man 
who  wanted  to  ask  a  favour,  and  the  man  who 
didn't  like  to.  He  had  never  yet  encountered  the 
type  which  had  no  use  for  him. 

20 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  21 

D'Arcy's  father,  who  sat  opposite  his  guest,  was 
a  tall  old  man  with  a  large  clean-shaven  face  and 
loose  grey  hair.  His  voice  was  startlingly  deep 
and  thundered  about  the  old  rooms  of  his  house 
as  it  had  on  his  own  quarter-deck ;  but  his  knotted 
hand  had  a  touch  of  velvet  as  he  laid  it  on  his  son's 
shoulder. 

"  You've  been  enjoying  your  holiday,  D'Arcy, 
boy !  "  he  said,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye.  "  Sky- 
larking, eh  ?  " 

"  Not  much,  sir.  I've  been  rather  harmless  this 
afternoon  playin'  ball  with  the  Culverton  girls !  " 
The  lad  laughed  a  little,  standing  between  his 
father's  knees,  with  his  face  half  turned  to  Mr. 
Savernake. 

"  Dolly  and  Nell,  eh  ?  Nice  little  girls  !  Which 
is  your  sweetheart,  D'Arcy  ?  Dolly,  eh  ?  Always 
after  the  girls,  this  boy  of  mine,  Savernake ! " 

"  H'mph  !  "  said  Bernard  Savernake,  with  a  sug- 
gestive sound  in  the  roof  of  his  mouth.  "  So  they 
spoil  you,  do  they,  Master  D'Arcy  ?  " 

The  boy  coloured  slightly,  and  looked  discon- 
certed. "  They  are  only  children,"  he  stammered. 
Then  in  the  hope  of  changing  the  subject — "  We 
saw  the  vicar,  dad  !  " 

"  The  deuce  you  did  !  "  exclaimed  Captain  Amyas 
in  surprise.  "  Back  from  his  foreign  gaming-tables, 
is  he !  It's  seldom  enough  he  sees  his  parish. 
Where  did  you  see  him,  D'Arcy?  " 

"  At  the  corner  of  the  lane — he  rode  in  from 
Exeter,  and  nearly  knocked  Dolly  down !  " 


22  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  A  nice  piece  of  work  suited  to  him !  He'd 
about  end  the  family  that  way — works  the  father 
to  death,  and  then  rides  down  the  children.  It's 
just  like  this,  Savernake :  our  vicar  is  the  Hon. 
George  Gore-Dalkeith — and  a  damn  bad  lot  too ! 
He  is  too  fine  a  gentleman  to  look  after  his  parish, 
so  he  leaves  all  the  work  to  his  curate-in-charge, 
who  is  an  underfed,  underpaid,  starved  rat  of  a 
thing,  slaving  away  day  and  night  while  the  vicar 
spends  his  days  at  Monte  Carlo  !  " 

"  But  I  should  have  thought  such  a  scandal  as 
that  would  have  got  about,  and  the  man  been 
turned  out  of  his  living !  Surely  you  needn't  en- 
dure it  passively  ?  " 

Captain  Amyas  shrugged  his  broad  shoulders. 
"  The  living  is  in  the  gift  of  his  father,  Lord  Brans- 
combe.  What  are  we  to  do  ?  If  we  made  a  dem- 
onstration down  here  in  Trawles,  ten  chances  to 
one  we  should  do  more  harm  than  good,  and  get 
the  curate,  Sydney  Culverton,  into  trouble.  We 
don't  want  that,  do  we,  D' Arcy  ?  He  is  the  father 
of  the  two  girls  I  joke  D'Arcy  about,  and  one  boy. 
Nell  and  Dolly  are  dear  little  souls,  but  I'm  afraid 
Bertie  is  having  a  rough  bringing-up." 

"  It  doesn't  follow  that  that  will  hurt  him,  if  he  is 
the  right  stuff,  though  I  grant  you  that  education  is 
the  tamer  of  the  wild  beast  in  man.  Where  do  you 
go  to  school,  D'Arcy  ?  " 

"  In  Exeter,  Mr.  Savernake,"  said  the  boy,  turn- 
ing round  to  face  the  keen  eyes  that  he  liked  by  in- 
stinct. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  23 

"Ah!     And  you  like  it?" 

"  Pretty  well." 

"  No  boy  says  '  Very  well '  to  school,  I  suppose. 
Well,  what  do  you  want  to  be  ?  " 

"  I  am  going  to  sea  ! "  said  D'Arcy,  with  a  slight 
hesitation,  and  a  look  of  surprise  at  the  question, 
which  seemed  to  him  superfluous. 

"  Because  your  father  did  before  you,  I  suppose. 
We  are  terribly  imitative  animals.  Didn't  I  see 
some  very  clever  sketches  of  yours  when  I  was  last 
here  ?  " 

"  I  can  draw  a  little,"  admitted  the  boy  reluc- 
tantly. He  wondered  whither  all  this  was  tending. 
The  very  question  as  to  his  future  plans  in  life, 
when  he  felt  he  could  be  nothing  but  a  sailor,  was  a 
vague  discomfort. 

"  Well,  I  thought  you  showed  a  great  deal  of  tal- 
ent. Don't  you  feel  you  want  to  develop  the  gift  ? 
Wouldn't  you  like  to  be  an  artist  ?  " 

"  No  !  "  The  one  word  was  a  thunderous  echo 
of  Captain  Amyas'  own  tones,  and  the  boy  quivered 
as  he  faced  Mr.  Savernake  with  indrawn  lips.  "  I 
want  to  go  to  sea — I  must  go — I  want  it  so  much  ! " 

Mr.  Savernake  looked  at  the  young  set  face 
steadily  for  a  minute.  Then  he  spoke  over 
D'Arcy's  head  to  his  father. 

"  Did  you  say  you  couldn't  afford  to  put  him  into 
the  Navy,  Amyas  ?  " 

"  Yes  ;  unfortunately  it  must  be  the  Merchant 
Service." 

"  The  Merchant  Service,  with  that  temperament ! 


24  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

.  .  .  My  dear  fellow,  in  my  opinion  you  are 
mad." 

"  Why  ?  The  boy's  a  born  sailor — you  can  see 
for  yourself.  Of  course  you  know  more  of  the  ins 
and  outs  of  the  Service  than  I  do,  but  even  if  it's 
rough  it  won't  choke  my  son  off! " 

"  It  is  not  the  roughness,  though  it's  a  hard  life 
at  first,"  said  Mr.  Savernake  with  some  reserve. 

"  The  pay  and  promotion  ?  Damn  it,  Savernake, 
it  can't  be  worse  than  the  Navy  ! " 

"  It  is  not  the  pay  and  promotion — slow  though 
they  both  are.  With  your  interest  and  influence  they 
will  be  moderately  fast.  It  is  not  even  the  absence 
of  any  pension,  or  provision  for  the  future,  that  I 
should  urge  as  an  insuperable  objection  in  this  case." 

"  The  life  itself  then  ?  " 

"  Yes,  the  life  itself — under  certain  circumstances. 
Send  the  boy  away,  Amyas ;  I  want  to  talk  to  you, 
and  I  can't  dissect  him  before  his  face.  Good-bye, 
D'Arcy — you  don't  want  to  shake  hands  with  me, 
do  you  ?  Think  I'm  trying  to  veto  the  desire  of 
your  life !  Never  mind — you  will  probably  beat 
me  yet.  Run  off  to  your  tea — and  don't  want 
things  'so  much,'  if  you  can  help  it,  through  your 
life,  for  the  peace  of  your  fellow -creatures  !  " 

There  was  silence  for  a  minute  while  the  boy 
went  slowly  and  laggingly  out  of  the  room.  He 
shut  the  door  firmly  behind  him,  and  then  Mr. 
Savernake  spoke  with  a  suddenness  that  made  Cap- 
tain Amyas  jump. 

"  The  boy's  exactly  like  his  mother  !  " 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  25 

Captain  Amyas  was  not  used  to  having  his  tender 
memories  dragged  out  like  this  ;  his  grim  old  face  set 
itself  with  an  expression  which  might  have  greeted 
an  intrusion  on  to  the  bridge  of  his  old  command. 

"  Come,  old  friend,  don't  be  annoyed  with  me !  " 
Savernake  said  gently.  "  It  seems  to  me  only  yes- 
terday that  you  were  trembling  and  sweating  for 
fear  Ruby  Lyston  would  not  have  you — a  great 
hard-fisted  fellow  like  you  !  " 

The  old  man's  face  altered.  The  hardness  went 
out  of  it,  and  his  eyes  looked  dim  through  his  quiv- 
ering smile.  "  I've  never  got  over  her  death,  Ber- 
nard !  "  he  said  huskily.  "  She  was  the  one  real 
woman  for  me !  There's  only  one  in  most  men's 
lives.  I  came  to  it  late  too — I  was  fifty  and  she 
twenty-three,  and  I  think  I  gave  her  a  double  share 
of  love  for  that  very  reason  just  as  if  I'd  stored  it 
up  for  her  all  those  extra  years  !  I  paid  her 
memory  the  compliment  of  marrying  a  year  after 
her  death,  for  I  simply  couldn't  bear  the  loneliness  ; 
but  much  as  I  care  for  Mary — and  she's  been  a 
good  wife,  and  good  to  the  boy — it's  nothing  to 
those  two  short  years  !  " 

Savernake  looked  at  him  with  honest  pity.  He 
saw  the  old  knotted  hand  furtively  wipe  the  dim 
blue  eyes,  and  he  spoke  in  a  meditative  tone. 

"  Yes,  Ruby  Lyston — art-student  and  art-dreamer, 
with  a  taste  for  all  the  beautiful  and  impracticable 
things  in  the  world.  A  slip  of  a  girl  she  was,  wasn't 
she  ? — and  held  you  in  the  hollow  of  her  hand  ! 
Some  natures  seem  born  to  hold  sway  over  all 


26  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

others  that  come  in  contact  with  them.  But  Ruby 
reigned  tenderly  always." 

The  sailor  nodded,  gulped  down  the  remainder  of 
his  grog,  and  looked  steadily  at  the  speaker. 
"  Well,  what's  all  this  for  ?  "  he  said. 

"  I  only  wanted  to  remind  you  what  she  was 
like,"  said  Savernake  quietly.  "  Can't  you  see  that 
the  boy  has  got  her  very  nature  ?  That  wanting 
things  '  so  much ' — that  is  just  Ruby  !  The  artistic 
temperament,  my  dear  Amyas,  however  much  it 
may  be  disguised  by  some  leaven  of  yourself  in  the 
lad.  D'Arcy — there's  a  nice  foreign  name  for  the 
son  of  an  English  sailor  ! — would  be  safer  expending 
that  intensity  of  his  in  writing  poems  or  painting 
pictures.  It  sounds  less  healthy  than  going  to  sea, 
but  I  assure  you  that  it  is  far  better  calculated  to 
work  the  devil  out  of  him  !  " 

"  To  call  him  D'Arcy  was  a  fancy  of  Ruby's," 
Captain  Amyas  explained.  "  I  would  rather  have 
named  him  Alfred  after  myself.  But  it  was  her 
choice  and  the  boy  is  her  boy.  I  can't  forget  that, 
Bernard ;  and  if  he  were  set  on  Art,  as  you  think 
he  should  be  " — the  Captain  made  a  wry  face  as  if 
the  word  were  hard  to  swallow — "  I  should  have  let 
him  have  his  way,  like  as  not.  But  you  can  see  for 
yourself  that  his  heart's  at  sea !  I  wasn't  near  so 
keen  myself  as  a  youngster." 

"  No,  and  that's  just  why  I  warn  you.  If  the  lad 
had  a  mere  adventurous  love  of  travel,  or  a  practical 
liking  for  boats,  I  should  say  give  him  a  voyage  or 
so  anyway,  and  see  if  it  gets  knocked  out  of  him. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  27 

If  it  doesn't  he'll  do.  But  your  boy  isn't  quite  like 
other  boys — I'll  pay  Ruby's  son  that  compliment ! 
— he's  what  the  Scotch  call  '  glamoured,'  and  he 
would  be  just  as  much  set  on  painting  or  music,  or 
even  more  the  stage,  if  his  taste  that  way  had  been 
fostered.  But  it  hasn't — you've  lived  Sea,  and 
preached  Sea,  down  here  in  Trawles,  until  the  child 
has  taken  it  like  a  fever  which  he  could  hardly 
avoid  catching." 

"  Well,  and  what  if  he  has  ?  "  cried  Amyas  hotly. 
"  It's  the  right  profession  for  him,  and  I  say  it. 
Hasn't  he  got  my  blood  in  his  veins  ?  And  if  he 
has  his  mother's  too — the  '  artistic '  temperament 
you  talk  so  glibly  of,  and  God  knows  what  you 
mean ! — will  a  touch  of  romance  make  him  any  the 
worse  a  sailor?  If  he  appreciates  the  wonderful 
and  beautiful  world  he  will  see  as  no  landsman  sees 
it — I  say  so  much  the  better !  " 

Savernake  drummed  with  his  fingers  on  the  table 
for  a  minute  in  silence.  Then  he  looked  up,  opened 
his  lips  as  if  to  speak  hastily,  closed  them  firmly 
again  into  their  half-moon,  and  drew  a  long  breath. 

"  You  are  talking  like  a  fool !  "  he  said  at  last  de- 
liberately. "  You  think  of  D'Arcy  going  through 
the  life  you  led,  under  the  strict  discipline  and  clean 
training  of  the  Navy.  You  do  not  know  what  the 
Merchant  Service  means  ;  it  is  not  the  Navy  with 
even  rougher  conditions  (and  in  your  day  it  must 
have  been  a  harsh  breaking-in,  I  admit ! ),  though 
you  may  think  so.  It  means  a  lot  more  liberty, 
and  temptations  which  may  be  no  greater  than  those 


28  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

you  experienced,  but  set  in  a  different  direction. 
Don't  misunderstand  me — it  is  a  great  profession, 
that  of  our  Mercantile  Marine ;  for  some  men  it  is 
the  very  best  profession,  for  a  few  the  only  one. 
But  for  a  boy  like  D'Arcy  it  is,  I  take  it,  the  most 
fatal  training  that  you  could  give  him." 

"  Well,  on  my  life,  Savernake,  I  don't  see  why ! 
The  boy  is  under  control  of  his  Skipper,  and  it's  a 
pretty  severe  control  I  don't  doubt,  if  I  may  judge 
by  some  of  the  men  I've  met !  Good  seamen, 
splendid  fellows,  but  a  bit  of  the  martinet  in  them. 
If  they  knock  him  about,  and  destroy  the  poetry  of 
the  life  for  him,  it's  the  best  thing  possible  accord- 
ing to  you ! " 

"  That  is  not  what  I  mean.  A  rough  experience 
he  certainly  may  have,  and  if  he  is  as  secretly  im- 
pressionable as  I  take  him  to  be,  you  will  find  he 
has  taken  in  a  lot  of  evil  as  cargo  by  the  time  he  is 
back  from  his  first  voyage.  The  actual  roughness 
and  hardships  will  not  hurt  him,  but  the  moral  at- 
mosphere about  him  will.  Of  course  you  can  pick 
your  Skipper  to  a  certain  extent,  and  I  have  no 
doubt  that  I  can  help  you  there.  But  there  is  no 
saying  what  influences  will  be  at  work  moulding  a 
very  pliable  nature.  Then,  too,  I  suppose  you  want 
your  son  to  rise  ?  " 

"  Of  course  I  do,  as  high  as  help  or  advice  can 
get  him.  I  can't  see  him  Captain  of  an  ironclad, 
but  I  hope  he  will  be  Master  of  one  of  the  biggest 
floating  hotels  in  the  seven  seas,  yet !  " 

"  Exactly — a  fourteen-thousand-ton  Liner,  carry- 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  29 

ing  hundreds  of  first-class  passengers — over  a  thou- 
sand souls  on  board  all  told  ;  with  unlimited  power 
over  his  own  little  realm,  cut  off  from  shore  re- 
straint, and  all  that  nervous  excitability  in  him  to 
find  an  outlet !  For,  take  it  how  you  will,  men  shut 
up  in  their  own  ships  with  things  too  much  their 
own  way,  and  natural  appetites  to  satisfy,  have  a  lot 
of  temptation  to  face.  It's  odds  if  they  don't  drink, 
or  gamble,  or  find  some  mischief  to  do.  It  wants 
a  more  level  head  than  D'Arcy's,  and  a  more  slug- 
gish nature,  to  make  the  best  Merchant  Skipper, 
Amyas ! " 

"  All  that  you  say  doesn't  convince  me  that  the 
boy  has  not  a  vocation  for  the  sea,"  said  the  Cap- 
tain obstinately.  "  You've  got  theories  about  hu- 
man nature,  Savernake,  and  you've  studied  character 
until  it's  your  hobby.  The  boy's  not  a  violin  string 
— he's  just  a  boy." 

"  Just  a  boy — and  by  and  by  just  a  man  !  "  said 
Savernake  with  a  dry  smile.  "  Well,  have  your 
own  way,  for  you  won't  be  warned.  Put  the  boy 
into  the  Merchant  Service,  and  see  what  comes  of 
it.  By  Jove  !  I  must  be  getting  to  the  station.  I 
want  to  catch  the  fast  up-train." 

"  My  dear  fellow,  you  won't  rush  off  like  this  ? 
Why,  you  only  came  down  by  the  four  o'clock. 
And  out  of  a  favour  to  me  too !  I  shall  feel  my 
hospitality  outraged  if  you  don't  stay  and  dine. 
You've  hardly  seen  my  wife  as  yet.  Let  us  put 
you  up." 

"  Can't,  my  dear  Captain.     Business  is  great  just 


30  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

now,  and  I  sandwiched  you  in  between  a  committee 
meeting  and  a  big  consignment.  I  must  not  miss 
that  train  for  all  I  am  worth.  Don't  come  to  the 
station  with  me — I  shall  be  quicker  alone." 

"  Well,  if  you  must  go,  good-bye.  And  I  may 
count  on  your  help  when  the  time  comes,  in  spite 
of  your  prejudice  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Savernake,  stopping  suddenly  on  his 
way  to  the  door.  "  But  on  one  condition.  Send 
D'Arcy  to  the  Worcester  to  be  trained,  and  bring 
him  to  me  when  he  has  done  his  two  years.  I'll 
find  him  a  berth  in  one  of  our  sailing  ships,  and 
after  his  time  is  through  put  him  into  a  '  tramp,'  and 
so  on  to  the  coveted  Liner.  But  I  will  not  under- 
take him  as  raw  material.  Other  lads  I  might,  but 
not  your  son.  Good-night !  " 

He  stepped  into  the  dimly-lit  hall,  opened  the 
door  for  himself,  and  walked  briskly  off  down  the 
road  to  the  railway.  It  was  only  a  short  distance, 
and  as  he  went  the  smooth  Devon  sea  sighed  an 
accompaniment  at  his  side  all  the  way.  The  long 
roar  of  its  quiet  voice  sounded  strange  and  ominous 
to  his  ears. 

"  He  wanted  to  go  to  sea  so  much !  he  felt  he 
must  go ! "  he  repeated,  glancing  with  quick  eyes 
over  the  heaving  expanse.  "  What  more  will  he 
feel  that  he  must  do  or  have  before  he  has  done  ? 
The  worst  of  men  who  feel  that  they  '  want '  so  in- 
tensely, is  generally  that  the  very  strength  of  their 
desire  accomplishes  its  object,  whatever  the  conse- 
quences may  be." 


CHAPTER  III 

"  Then  stooped  the  Lord,  and  He  called  the  good  sea  up  to  Him, 
And  'stablished  his  borders  unto  all  eternity, 
That  such  as  have  no  pleasure 
For  to  praise  the  Lord  by  measure, 
They  may  enter  into  galleons  and  serve  Him  on  the  sea. 

"  Sun,  wind,  and  cloud  shall  fail  not  from  the  face  of  it, 

Stinging,  ringing  spindrift,  and  the  fulmar  flying  free ; 
And  the  ships  shall  go  abroad 
To  the  Glory  of  the  Lord 

Who  heard  the  silly  sailor-folk  and  gave  them  back  their  sea !  " 

RUDYARD  KIPLING 

D'ARCY  did  not  go  to  the  children's  sanctum  for 
tea  when  he  left  the  dining-room.  He  stood  out- 
side instead,  hesitating  a  moment,  with  his  light 
brows  drawn  into  a  knot  that  altered  his  face  in  a 
grotesque  fashion.  For  a  moment  the  man  was 
shadowed  forth  in  the  boy,  and  his  face  was  the 
face  he  would  wear  twenty  years  hence. 

After  a  minute  he  deliberately  put  his  foot  up  on 
a  hall  chair,  and  began  taking  off  his  shoes.  His 
step-mother  came  into  the  hall  while  he  was  engaged 
on  the  operation,  and  stood  looking  at  him  indul- 
gently. She  was  one  of  those  large  shapeless 
women  with  brown  hair  who  leave  no  distinct  im- 
pression of  their  features  on  a  stranger's  mind,  save 
that  they  look  sensible  and  matter-of-fact. 

"  Going  out,  or  coming  in,  D'Arcy  ? "  she  said 
pleasantly. 

31 


32  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  I'm  goin'  out,"  the  boy  answered  in  a  curiously 
repressed  tone.  "  Would  you  mind  lettin'  Milly 
and  Jack  know?  They  think  I'm  comin',  and  they'll 
wait." 

"  Mary  shall  tell  them,"  said  Mrs.  Amyas  ami- 
cably. She  never  thought  of  raising  an  objection  to. 
D'Arcy's  fashion  of  spending  any  portion  of  his 
holiday,  though  had  it  been  Jack  who  had  wished 
to  be  absent  from  a  meal  she  would  have  vetoed  it 
at  once.  As  Captain  Amyas  had  said,  she  had 
been  a  good  foster-mother  to  the  orphaned  baby 
whom  she  undertook  at  twelve  months  old,  and  if 
there  were  any  one  to  whom  she  showed  indul- 
gence, even  when  her  balanced  judgment  condemned 
it,  it  was  to  her  step-son.  Deep  down  in  her  heart 
there  was  a  little  humble  admiration  for  the  dead 
mother  whose  memory  she  knew  that  her  husband 
still  quivered  to  call  up.  Ruby  was  to  her  a  crea- 
ture of  some  romance,  whom  she  neither  dreamed 
nor  aimed  at  supplanting ;  and  she  could  not  help 
regarding  Ruby's  son  as  on  a  slightly  different  foot- 
ing to  her  own  boy  and  girl,  though  she  might  love 
them  more  as  nearer  and  dearer  creatures.  D'Arcy 
was  endowed  by  her  with  certain  fine  characteristics 
which  he  probably  did  not  possess,  though  her  eyes 
saw  truly  that  he  shared  in  that  alien  strain  which 
divided  him  and  his  mother  from  herself.  She  did 
not  spoil  him  exactly,  but  she  allowed  him  to  go 
his  own  way  with  less  superintendence  than  her 
own  boy. 

"  Your  father  has  been  talking  to  you,  I  suppose, 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  33 

about  your  future,  and  you  want  to  think  it  over  ?  " 
she  said,  patting  the  shoulder  under  the  blue  woollen 
jersey.  It  shrank  a  little,  but  he  made  no  assent. 
"  I  know  he  wanted  to,"  she  went  on,  not  at  all  dis- 
composed by  his  silence.  "  But  if  you  miss  your 
tea,  you'll  be  hungry.  Will  you  run  and  ask 
cook  to  give  you  a  bit  of  bread-and-butter,  or 
how?" 

"  Oh,  I'll  have  it  with  Jasper,"  said  the  boy  im- 
patiently, and  kicking  off  his  loosened  shoes  stood 
free,  barefoot  again,  on  the  threshold. 

He  breathed  more  freely  as  he  ran  across  the 
narrow  road,  clambered  over  the  low  sea-wall,  and 
dropped  on  to  the  beach.  Under  the  warm  red 
cliff  to  his  right  were  a  little  zinc  building,  hardly 
as  large  as  a  two-room  cottage,  some  boats  drawn 
up  above  the  water-line,  and  a  choice  collection  of 
nets  spread  out  around.  This  was  Jasper's  cottage, 
and  the  favourite  resort  of  the  children,  who  watched 
the  old  man  mend  his  nets  and  clean  the  fish  on 
which  he  principally  lived,  and  sometimes  persuaded 
him  to  take  them  out  when  he  and  his  boat  went 
fishing.  He  was  not  one  of  the  regular  trawlers 
who  drove  their  trade  in  Trawles  bay,  though  he 
could  throw  a  net  and  haul  with  any  of  them,  and 
sometimes  joined  the  Seine.  Jasper  held  a  some- 
what solitary  position  in  his  combination  of  trades, 
for  he  was  employed  as  a  carpenter  by  the  residents 
in  Trawles,  and  in  the  summer,  when  visitors  came, 
he  was  on  hire  for  a  shilling  an  hour  to  row  them 
round  the  bay,  and  point  out  Exmouth  in  the  dis- 


34  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

tance,  which  was  about  all  the  excitement  the  ex- 
cursion offered. 

D'Arcy  went  up  the  sand  and  sat  on  the  edge  of 
a  boat  with  his  feet  dangling.  He  did  not  call  out 
for  Jasper,  who  was  probably  eating  shrimps  inside 
his  zinc  residence,  nor  did  he  hanker  after  the  fore- 
gone tea  at  all.  He  was  thinking,  as  he  sat  staring 
out  across  the  quiet  September  evening  and  the 
full  calm  flood  of  the  sea.  The  sunset  had  faded 
until  the  waters  were  no  longer  scarlet  and  golden, 
and  a  full  moon  had  come  up,  and  even  now  was 
sending  a  long  ripple  of  light  across  the  placid  sea. 
This  effect  of  moonlight  before  daylight  had  passed 
was  one  that  always  fascinated  D'Arcy.  He  was 
conscious  of  the  pleasure  it  gave  him  even  now,  as 
he  sat  scowling  on  the  edge  of  the  tilted  boat. 

He  had  never  had  his  chosen  profession  called  in 
question  before,  and  it  had  startled  him.  Of  course 
he  was  going  to  sea !  He  had  been  sure  of  it  since 
the  time  when  his  blue  eyes  first  looked  consciously 
upon  its  familiar  presence  in  his  life.  It  had  greeted 
him  like  an  old  friend  every  morning  of  his  exist- 
ence until  his  ninth  year,  and  at  night  the  voice  of 
it  was  in  all  his  slumbers,  though  his  small  room  was 
at  the  back  of  the  house.  D'Arcy  had  never  shared 
the  fear  of  the  dark  which  besets  most  nervous 
children.  He  drew  up  his  blind  to  the  roller,  threw 
open  his  window,  even  during  the  mild  Devon 
winter,  and  listened  to  the  familiar  slurring  of  the 
sea  over  the  sand  only  a  few  yards  away,  until  he 
fell  asleep. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  35 

The  brief  conversation  between  his  father  and  Mr. 
Savernake  and  himself  had  shaken  his  confidence  in 
the  inevitable.  Supposing  his  father  failed  to  carry 
out  their  mutual  plan  !  He  was  old  enough  to  real- 
ize that  the  satisfactory  fulfilment  of  his  projects  lay 
largely  in  his  elders'  hands,  and  the  usual  boyish 
fancy  for  "  running  away  to  sea "  was  practically 
impossible,  as  he  was  shrewd  enough  to  see.  Cap- 
tain Amyas  had  spoken  to  him  and  before  him 
frankly  enough  to  give  him  some  grasp  of  the  tech- 
nicalities of  the  Merchant  Service.  Skippers  were 
not  so  eager  to  take  untrained  and  useless  lads  that 
he  had  only  to  ask  and  have.  There  were  scores 
of  apprentices  from  the  Worcester  and  the  Conway, 
ready  and  eager  for  their  first  voyage,  and  it  was 
not  likely  that  without  their  advantages  he  would 
take  precedence.  No,  the  power  lay  in  the  hands 
of  his  elders.  He  ground  his  teeth,  and  swung  his 
foot  backwards  and  forwards,  so  that  his  small  hard 
heel  struck  the  boat's  side  rhythmically.  He  felt  as 
if  Mr.  Savernake  had  entered  in  as  a  thief  in  the 
night  to  take  away  his  birthright.  A  man  whom 
he  had  always  liked,  and  should  have  picked  out 
from  among  his  father's  old  friends  as  well-disposi- 
tioned  towards  himself!  And  the  worst  of  it  was 
he  could  not  hate  Bernard  Savernake,  in  spite  of 
that  soul-disturbing  talk.  He  liked  the  keen  frank 
face  and  the  clear  eyes  fronting  his  own ;  he  liked 
the  man's  very  voice — it  rang  true.  And  he  real- 
ized that  Savernake  had  been  quite  honest  and  dis- 
interested and  truth  of  some  sort  was  in  his  words, 


36  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

much  as  he  would  rather  have  disbelieved  it.  There 
was  a  horrid  adaptability  in  D'Arcy  that  forced  him 
to  see  two  sides  to  every  question.  He  felt  that 
Mr.  Savernake  had  his  reasons,  though  they  reduced 
a  boy's  whole  scheme  of  existence  to  chaos. 

And  yet — he  wanted  to  go  to  sea  so  badly ! 

Why  should  he  not  ?  What  was  there  against 
it  ?  Why  should  he  be  less  of  a  sailor  than  his 
father  ?  Into  the  Navy  he  could  not  go ;  that  was 
a  grief,  but  not  a  great  one,  because  Captain  Amyas, 
in  his  own  generous  judgment,  had  placed  both 
Services  on  an  equality  to  his  mind.  He  would  be 
only  "  Master  "  instead  of  Captain — but  he  would 
be  the  Skipper  of  the  biggest  Liner  afloat  before  he 
had  done,  a  ship  that  his  father  himself  would  ad- 
mire! 

"  I  will  be  Captain  Amyas  too,  some  day — at 
least  I  will  be  called  so,"  said  D'Arcy,  sitting  on  the 
old  boat,  a  slim  boyish  figure  with  a  rough  fair  head 
and  bare  legs,  and  with  all  the  beauty  of  fair  Devon 
as  a  background.  He  was  for  once  unconscious  of 
his  own  picturesque  suitability,  in  his  earnestness, 
though  as  a  rule  that  was  an  unacknowledged  pleas- 
ure in  the  recesses  of  his  mind. 

"  And  then  I  will  come  home  and  marry  Dolly, 
and  settle  down  here  in  a  nice  little  home  of  my 
own  to  come  back  to  between  trips."  It  was  a 
dream  not  to  be  parted  from  lightly. 

His  gaze  went  out  hungrily  over  the  quiet  sea, 
which  only  heaved  in  the  windless  night,  and  broke 
in  long  shallow  ripples  along  the  sands.  The  shore 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  37 

at  Trawles  is  singularly  flat,  so  much  so  that  the 
water  is  shallow  for  a  long  way  out  into  the  bay, 
and  in  summer  as  still  as  a  lagoon.  D'Arcy  loved 
it  best  perhaps  when  the  southwest  wind  was  up, 
for  then  the  day  and  night  were  full  of  music.  The 
long  waves  came  rolling  in  full  of  froth,  breaking 
far  out  into  the  bay,  and  the  manes  of  the  awful 
white  horses  showed  above  the  broken  bit  of  cliff 
known  as  the  Dog  Rock,  that  guards  the  east  side 
of  Trawles.  It  was  beautiful  then,  and  wonderful 
to  watch. 

As  night  fell  the  chill  of  early  autumn  made  the 
boy  shiver.  His  pent-up  emotion  and  an  empty 
stomach  caused  him  to  feel  the  misery  of  his  own  un- 
certainty, and  he  fretted  for  the  hope  that  might  not 
be  fulfilled.  Still  he  did  not  attempt  to  go  home, 
until  a  heavy  step  came  along  the  sea-front,  and  a 
big  form  lumbered  over  the  sea-wall  and  along  the 
sand  to  the  lonely  little  figure  by  the  boat.  It  was 
Captain  Amyas  come  to  look  for  his  son,  very  much 
as  a  big  old  fighting  walrus  might  look  for  a  calf 
which  he  feared  had  got  hurt  in  a  scuffle.  He  put 
his  large  hand  on  the  boy's  shoulder,  and  leaned  up 
against  the  boat  beside  him. 

"  What  is  it,  D'Arcy  ?  " 

"  I  was  thinkin',  dad." 

The  old  sea-captain  put  his  great  arm  about  the 
small  nervous  figure  as  tenderly  as  though  he  were 
man  and  woman  too. 

"  Thinking  I'm  not  going  to  send  you  to  sea  ?  " 

"  Y — yes, — and  wonderin'  if  I  could — bear  it." 


38  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

The  old  man  looked  down  at  the  boy — Ruby's 
boy  ! — and  he  laughed  a  little,  but  as  if  he  were  not 
far  off  tears. 

"  Why,  you  don't  think  I'll  let  a  son  of  mine  be  a 
land-lubber !  Don't  go  fretting  your  heart  out,  old 
fellow.  You  shall  be  a  sailor,  though  all  the  ship- 
owners in  existence  shook  their  silly  heads  over  it !  " 

D'Arcy  slipped  from  the  boat  and  stood  by  his 
father's  side,  drawing  a  long  breath.  It  seemed  to 
be  wrenched  up  out  of  the  very  roots  of  his  being. 
But  his  speech  was  as  laconic  as  usual. 

"  All  right,  sir !  I'm  safe  with  that.  And— and 
thank  you ! " 

The  small  brown  hand  slipped  into  the  large  one, 
and  the  two  gripped  each  other.  D'Arcy  turned 
cheerfully  from  his  late  Gethsemane  and  walked 
home  with  his  father,  side  by  side  through  the  silver 
night. 


CHAPTER  IV 

"  Boy  and  girl  we  have  played  together  — 

Hearts  in  slumber  and  heads  in  air ! 
Maiden  trim  with  the  floating  feather, 
Sailor-lad  with  a  future  clear. 
Snatching  a  kiss  as  he  climbed  the  stair,— 
('  Kiss  me  ! '  he  said,  on  the  twilight  stair, 
Half  for  pastime  and  half  in  sorrow,) — 
Sailor-lad  who  would  sail  to-morrow 
Out  to  the  uttermost  hemisphere." 

VIOLET  FANE 

WHEN  D'Arcy  left  school  at  thirteen  he  went 
straight  to  the  Worcester,  and  spent  the  next  three 
years  of  his  life  in  learning  as  much  navigation  and 
seamanship  as  could  be  knocked  into  him  without 
the  practical  experience  of  being  out  of  sight  of  land 
for  six  months  at  a  stretch.  He  found  himself 
among  gentlemen  on  the  training  ship,  and  with  an 
inherent  facility  for  taking  the  tone  of  his  surround- 
ings, he  was  a  gentleman  himself — so  much  so  that 
Captain  Amyas  was  full  of  innocent  pride  over  him, 
and  openly  flouted  at  Bernard  Savernake's  croaking, 
pointing  to  the  result  of  the  experiment  to  prove 
that  his  disregard  of  it  had  been  the  wisest  course 
to  pursue. 

It  was  at  this  period  of  his  life  that  D'Arcy 
learned  the  necessity  of  knowing  how  to  fight — an 
accomplishment  for  whose  use  he  had  need  to  the 
end  of  his  career.  It  came  about  through  a  big 

39 


40  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

tussle  with  a  bully  on  the  training  ship,  whereat 
both  boys  were  so  well  matched  that  neither  of 
them  could  beat  the  other,  and  they  returned  from 
their  encounter  on  the  Kentish  bank  of  the  river  in 
such  a  state  that  the  lieutenant  in  charge  could  not 
recognize  them.  The  bully  had  had  a  little  more 
weight  and  less  persistence  than  his  antagonist; 
but  D'Arcy,  pondering  over  things,  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  science  was  the  real  necessity.  So 
when  he  was  through  his  apprenticeship  he  qualified 
for  his  first  voyage  as  an  officer  by  going  to  a 
trainer — an  old  light-weight  champion  who  knocked 
beginners  about  for  a  consideration — and  explained 
his  wishes. 

"  Look  here,"  said  the  boxer,  "  is  it  real  .  .  . 
science  you  want,  or  ...  up-and-down  fight- 
ing?" 

"  I  expect  it's  the  fightin',"  said  D'Arcy,  after  a 
moment's  consideration.  "  I  want  to  be  able  to 
take  care  of  myself,  and  I've  got  to  handle  men 
who  won't  stop  for  any  theories  or  rules  of  boxin'." 

"Right  you  are,"  said  the  professional  placidly. 
"  Come  and  'it  me,  and  do  it  'ard  !  " 

So  they  closed  after  a  few  feints,  and  fought  it 
out  up  and  down  the  training  space.  And  D'Arcy 
learned  what  the  exact  advantages  of  his  height 
and  weight  were,  which  of  course  differ  with  every 
man,  and  how  to  throw  his  opponent,  and  which 
guard  to  use  for  the  unskilled  blows  he  might  have 
to  meet.  That  was  better  fighting  than  on  the 
Rotherhithe  shore  by  the  Worcester,  and  the 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  41 

practical  knowledge  was  beyond  price.  When 
D'Arcy  knocked  a  man  down  in  his  first  voyage 
as  second  Mate,  and  broke  his  jaw,  he  laid  the 
foundations  of  respect  for  himself  in  the  foc's'le, 
and  he  never  had  much  trouble  with  his  men  after, 
though  his  reputation  for  being  "  a  bruiser "  was 
the  result  of  luck  rather  than  judgment.  The  man 
whose  jaw  was  sacrificed  had  been  insolent  through 
drink,  but  no  one  knew  that  the  boy  turned  sick 
for  one  half-minute  before  he  struck  out,  or  that 
the  savage  flushed  red  of  his  face  had  been  pre- 
ceded by  a  sickly  pallor  of  fear.  That  was  a  side 
of  Amyas'  character  happily  undiscernible  by  the 
world  at  large. 

During  the  last  part  of  his  training  on  the 
Worcester  D'Arcy  was  growing  straight  and  tall, 
though  he  would  never  be  as  big  as  his  father ;  his 
hair  was  still  fair,  his  face  thin,  and  brown,  and 
healthy,  and  his  blue  eyes  puckered  at  the  corners. 
He  was  affectionate  to  Milly,  of  whose  female 
prettiness  he  was  rather  proud,  and  took  her  photo 
back  with  him  after  his  first  holiday,  whereupon  ail 
the  boys  about  his  own  age  who  were  his  special 
"  mates  "  fell  in  love  with  it,  and  composed  nigger 
serenades  in  her  honour.  Millicent's  beauty  ma- 
tured early,  and  at  fifteen  she  looked  nearly  twenty. 
D'Arcy  found  that  from  the  possession  of  such  a 
sister  much  honour  accrued  to  him,  and  he  cherished 
her  accordingly,  the  while  his  real  affection  re- 
mained Jack's.  His  step-brother  was  following 
in  the  path  that  he  had  trod  at  Exeter,  and  was 


42  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

as  bullet-headed  and  as  much  a  worshipper  of 
D'Arcy  as  ever.  It  had  long  since  been  decided 
to  make  him  a  doctor,  from  some  fancied  suit- 
ability in  him,  without  consulting  his  boyish  taste 
at  all. 

Nell  and  Dolly  Culverton  were  growing  up  also, 
in  their  uncomfortable  home,  very  much  as  the 
innocent  daisies  bloom  in  the  midst  of  an  un- 
cultivated common.  There  were  no  propitious 
circumstances  in  their  up-bringing ;  they  were  still 
often  hungry,  and  they  outgrew  their  ragged  frocks 
long  before  there  was  any  chance  of  their  being 
replaced.  And  yet  D'Arcy,  home  from  the  Worces- 
ter in  all  the  glory  of  newly-acquired  knowledge 
and  the  self-respect  that  training  gives,  recognized 
a  quaint  originality  in  Nell  that  he  never  found  in 
any  other  girl,  while  Dolly — ah,  Dolly !  with  her 
Devon  face,  and  the  yellow  hair  to  frame  it !  All 
the  wild  roses  had  got  into  her  cheeks,  and  her 
speedwell  eyes  had  grown  shy,  and  did  not  appeal  to 
D'Arcy  to  come  to  her  rescue  as  of  yore.  Dorothy 
was  twelve  when  D'Arcy  sailed  away  on  his  first 
voyage  in  one  of  Savernake,  Cross,  and  Saver- 
nake's  big  sailing  ships,  and  if  he  took  a  kiss  with 
him  to  sweeten  those  long  twelve  months  that 
must  pass  before  his  return,  only  the  Devon  lanes 
knew  it. 

I  suppose  every  Liner  Officer  remembers  his  first 
voyage  in  a  sailing  ship  with  mingled  horror  and 
enthusiasm.  It  is  so  different  to  the  law  and  order 
of  the  Worcester,  its  drawbacks  are  such  impossible 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  43 

ones,  and  its  teaching  so  disheartening.  On  the 
other  hand,  will  any  after-motion  of  a  rolling, 
thumping  steamer,  though  she  be  the  best  afloat, 
come  up  to  that  suggestion  of  flying  with  living 
wings  through  an  element  of  velvet,  sacred  to  a  big 
ship  with  all  her  canvas  straining  before  a  favour- 
able wind? 

It  was  the  lack  of  cleanliness  that  D'Arcy  felt 
most.  There  were  times  when  he  would  have  given 
every  chance  of  future  happiness  to  throw  off  his 
unwashed  clothes  and  plunge  into  the  buoyant 
water  dancing  tantalizingly  all  round  them. 

"  Water,  water  everywhere,  and  not  a  drop  to — wash  !  " 

In  the  old  Devon  days  cleanliness  had  become 
second  nature — a  natural  element.  There  was  the 
whole  sea  to  swim  in,  though  there  had  been  no 
fresh  little  stream  trickling  through  the  heart  of 
Trawles  ;  on  the  Worcester  not  to  wash  would  have 
been  to  call  down  on  one's  head  criticisms  search- 
ing in  their  brutality,  let  alone  its  being  compulsory. 
But  here,  on  the  Mistress,  to  wash  once  a  week  was 
a  luxury.  How  often  D'Arcy  thought  thirstily  of 
the  limpid  water  rushing  through  Trawles  to  the 
sea,  as  he  lay  in  his  hot  uncomfortable  berth  in  the 
after-part  of  the  ship !  There  were  three  other 
apprentices  besides  himself;  he  liked  them  all,  but 
he  could  have  wished  the  space  allotted  to  them  for 
sleeping,  and  eating,  and  spending  their  spare  time 
— all  in  one — had  been  larger  and  less  filthy.  He 
did  not  desire  other  boys  crowded  on  him,  to  choke 


44  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

out  what  breathing  space  and  sweetness  there  might 
be,  and  he  had  a  suspicion  that  he  was  not,  himself, 
a  desirable  object  to  be  near. 

Therefore  his  happiest  time  was  in  his  night 
watch,  when  he  stood  in  the  free  air,  and  felt  the 
ship  going  kindly  through  a  quiet  sea,  and  saw  the 
wonders  of  the  tropic  nights,  and  such  vast  spaces 
of  sky  as  no  landsman  can  conceive  of,  even  though 
he  lived  in  the  middle  of  Exmoor.  Fortunately  for 
himself  D'Arcy's  first  voyage  took  place  under  the 
auspices  of  a  Captain  who  handled  his  apprentices 
leniently,  and  if  he  did  not  take  much  trouble  to 
see  that  they  were  learning  their  business,  they  were 
at  least  not  set  to  fag  for  the  men,  and  in  conse- 
quence they  did  not  learn  to  sleep  upright  while  on 
duty  because  they  were  worn  out  all  day.  There 
was  no  part  of  his  profession  that  D'Arcy  really 
shirked,  and  there  was  no  single  inch  of  the  ship  he 
did  not  love,  despite  her  drawbacks.  More  espe- 
cially he  liked  to  hear  the  whimper  of  the  ropes 
through  the  sheaves,  and  to  see  the  sails  trimmed. 
"  All  hands  shorten  sail "  was  a  real  joy,  for  then 
his  duty  was  at  the  mizzen,  and  he  would  tingle 
with  excitement  as  he  went  aloft  and  hung  on  as 
only  a  sailor  can  in  the  strength  of  a  rising  gale. 

"  I  shall  throw  up  the  sea  and  turn  lubber ! "  one 
of  the  other  boys  said  to  him  as  they  lay  in  port  at 
Bombay.  "  I'm  sick  of  dirty  quarters  and  salt  beef! 
If  it's  all  to  be  like  this  it's  not  good  enough.  My 
father  wanted  me  to  go  into  his  business.  He'll  be 
glad  enough  if  I  give  this  up." 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  4$ 

"  I  shall  stick  on,"  said  D'Arcy.  "  It  won't  be 
always  like  this — and  it's  our  own  fault  for  not 
cleanin'  our  house." 

"  Who  cares  whether  we  do  or  not  ?  We  don't 
belong  to  the  after-guard — yet !  And  where's  the 
water  to  come  from  ?  We  can't  clean  ourselves  if 
we  can  the  berths.  If  you  can  put  up  with  this  for 
the  sake  of  what's  to  come,  you  must  be  a  long 
sight  keener  than  I  am." 

"  I'm  no  fonder  of  dirt  than  you ! "  retorted 
D'Arcy.  "  But  there's  things  to  make  up."  He 
thought  of  the  piles  of  sails  spread  above  his  head 
in  mid  ocean,  of  the  sounds  and  scents  of  the  ship, 
and  he  looked  round  the  decks  with  affectionate 
eyes,  though  the  Mistress  was  by  no  means  a  ro- 
mantic object  in  harbour.  He  did  not  say  what  he 
felt,  but  he  knew  that  the  rough  coarse  life  was 
worth  bearing  because  the  glamour  held  him  still 
and  stood  him  in  good  stead.  He  would  learn,  in 
spite  of  meeting  with  little  encouragement,  not  be- 
cause he  was  a  boy  with  an  impetus  to  go  to  the 
front  under  any  circumstances,  but  because  there 
was  not  a  detail  about  the  ship  that  was  not  of  in- 
terest to  him.  The  Mistress  was  his  hobby;  he 
watched  the  men  at  their  work  when  he  was  allowed, 
and  asked  questions  which  were  occasionally  an- 
swered. The  Mate  was  a  grim  and  silent  person 
whom  D'Arcy  had  seen  on  one  occasion  hurl  a  man 
overboard  and  thereby  check  a  possible  mutiny 
amongst  the  crew,  but  the  boy  discovered  that  if  he 
could  be  encountered  alone,  particularly  when  things 


46  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

were  going  easily  with  the  ship,  he  was  as  approach- 
able as  the  mildest  of  men.  His  maxims  were 
probably  less  noticeable  for  their  moral  aspect  than 
for  their  practical  use  in  the  life  he  had  led,  and  it 
was  chiefly  from  this  mentor  that  the  apprentice 
imbibed  wisdom. 

D'Arcy  came  back  from  that  first  voyage  with  a 
different  atmosphere  about  him  than  he  had  brought 
from  the  Worcester.  It  was  not  only  that  he  was 
rougher  in  manner,  for  with  his  facility  for  taking 
the  tone  of  his  surroundings,  he  dropped  or  hid  that 
in  the  first  twenty-four  hours  ;  but  there  was  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  bloom  rubbed  off  his  mind. 
There  was  very  little  evil  that  he  had  not  heard  of, 
though  he  packed  it  away  into  the  storehouse  of  his 
mind  to  be  rendered  up  only  when  called  for,  and 
many  of  his  boyish  illusions  had  been  utterly  des- 
troyed. He  had  learned  to  swear  with  a  fluency 
and  diversity  which  would  have  considerably  sur- 
prised his  father  had  he  heard  it.  But  D'Arcy  had 
the  nous  not  to  display  this  accomplishment.  He 
was  quiet  and  affectionate  to  his  father,  and  the  old 
man  thought  him  grown  more  manly  and  self-reli- 
ant. Captain  Amyas  was  ailing  at  the  time  of 
D'Arcy's  return,  and  his  son  thought  him  aged 
very  much.  He  lingered  on  for  a  year  or  so, 
and  then  caught  a  chill  and  died  when  D'Arcy 
was  in  his  eighteenth  year,  away  at  sea.  He 
returned  from  his  third  voyage  to  find  his 
father's  old  corner  empty,  and  the  house  by  the 
sea  singularly  silent  and  dreary,  for  Mrs.  Amyas 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  47 

and  Millicent  were  all  alone  there,  Jack  being  still 
at  school. 

His  father's  death  was  a  shock  to  D'Arcy,  though 
he  might  have  expected  it.  He  was  shipping  as 
third  Mate  next  voyage,  and  had  already  got  his 
certificate  for  second.  He  missed  Captain  Amyas' 
hearty  approval  and  interest  in  his  career  more  than 
he  ever  said,  and  the  usually  happy  memory  of  his 
leave  on  shore  was  darkened. 

From  third  Mate  he  rose  to  second  without  much 
delay,  thanks  to  the  influence  behind  him,  and  the 
fact  that  Savernakes  were  rapidly  advancing  to  their 
final  position  as  one  of  the  biggest  shipping  firms ; 
they  owned,  at  this  time,  a  goodly  number  of  sail- 
ing ships  as  well  as  cargo  "  tramps,"  from  which 
they  were  gradually  amassing  capital  for  the  build- 
ing of  those  great  Liners  which  were  the  goal  of 
D'Arcy's  ambition.  They  had  already  a  certain 
number  of  passenger  boats,  and  during  the  next  ten 
years  advanced  rapidly  to  that  unique  position  they 
finally  held,  training  their  Officers  especially  for 
their  own  service,  and  placing  them  carefully  by  the 
qualifications  they  displayed  for  each  branch  of 
their  owners'  business.  There  were  men  who  never 
moved  out  of  the  sailing  ships,  others  who,  unless 
content  to  work  cargo,  might  leave  the  employ  of 
the  firm ;  but  if  they  were  judged  unfitted  for  the 
higher  positions  no  seniority  or  discontent  would 
obtain  it  for  them.  The  majority  of  the  men  con- 
nected with  the  great  firm,  however,  found  them- 
selves treated  generously  and  justly,  and  a  berth  in 


48  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

one  of  Savernakes'  boats  was  much  more  often 
vainly  coveted  than  it  was  abandoned. 

D'Arcy  passed  for  Master  before  he  was  Mate  or 
Chief  Officer,  according  to  the  peculiar  demands  of 
shipowners,  who  hold  a  tradition  that  a  certificate 
issued  by  the  Board  of  Trade  can  produce  efficiency 
in  a  young  man  who  has  fulfilled  no  more  responsi- 
ble post  than  that  of  third  Mate !  If  such  holders 
of  certificates  could,  on  the  strength  of  them,  ob- 
tain a  Master's  position,  the  safety  of  the  ship 
ought  to  be  upon  the  heads  of  those  who  grant 
such  a  proof  of  competency  before  the  holder  can 
have  had  experience  to  warrant  it.  That  the  grade 
is  merely  theoretical  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the 
biggest  companies  will  not  give  a  young  man  a  po- 
sition as  officer  in  a  Liner  at  all  until  he  has  passed 
for  Master — therefore  he  must  be  Master  before  he 
may  have  ever  been  Mate,  at  all  events  of  a 
steamer  !  D'Arcy  did  not  attain  to  the  dignity  of 
a  first  Mate's  birth  until  he  was  twenty-two,  when 
he  obtained  it  on  a  smaller  sailing  ship  than  the 
Mistress,  and  had  the  good  fortune  to  encounter 
such  weather  off  the  Horn  as  made  his  Skipper 
tighten  his  lips  and  pathetically  inquire  of  Provi- 
dence why  it  had  seen  fit  to  treat  them  to  this  with 
practically  no  one  to  help  him, — for  the  second 
Mate  was  more  inexperienced  yet.  D'Arcy  Amyas 
set  his  lips  too,  and  faced  the  fact  that  he  had  got 
his  first  chance. 

There  had  been  a  dead  calm — a  calm  off  the 
Horn! — and  about  sunset  the  wind  began  to  rise 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  49 

fitfully,  and  the  Officers  looked  at  the  canvas  with 
which  the  ship  was  crowded  to  catch  the  faintest 
breeze,  and  the  crew  tumbled  to  in  a  hurry  when 
they  were  ordered  to  shorten  sail.  So  sudden  was 
the  storm  that  the  canvas  was  got  in  with  the  utmost 
difficulty,  and  even  when  she  was  "  snugged  down  " 
the  ship  was  by  no  means  pleasant.  She  was  a  big 
boat,  deeply  laden,  and  did  not  behave  well  in  a 
heavy  sea.  To  keep  her  running  they  had  left  the 
lower  topsails  and  foresails  set,  and  every  now  and 
then  as  the  sea  rose  she  took  it  green,  and  the  water 
came  tumbling  inboard  with  a  sound  like  the  crack- 
ing of  a  big  drum — the  smash  on  the  iron  deck 
very  much  resembled  the  splitting  of  stretched 
parchment. 

All  through  that  delirious,  howling  night  Master 
and  Mate  were  on  duty,  conning  the  ship  more  by 
instinct  it  seemed  than  by  judgment,  until  when 
morning  broke  over  the  mountainous  sea  she  had 
weathered  a  breeze  which  brought  D'Arcy's  heart 
into  his  throat  when  he  recalled  it.  And  yet  he 
was  again  conscious  of  the  stimulating  excitement 
all  through  his  trial — of  rising  to  the  demand  on 
him,  and  exulting  in  his  own  strength.  He  knew 
the  ship,  every  inch  of  her.  He  felt  as  though 
there  were  some  electric  sympathy  between  them, 
so  that  he  knew  her  needs  before  the  anger  in  her 
sails  was  audible  to  the  practised  ears  straining  to 
help  her,  and  when  in  the  grey  of  the  ghastly 
morning  Master  and  Mate  came  face  to  face  for  a 
moment  with  breathing  space  for  more  than  orders, 


So  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

the  older  man  brought  his  hand  down  on  D'Arcy's 
shoulder  with  a  strength  that  made  him  reel  as  the 
wind  had  not  done. 

"  We're  through  the  worst  of  it ! "  he  said. 
"  And  you're  a good  sailor !  " 

The  lighter  canvas  was  being  set,  and  she  was 
running  fast  before  the  rack  of  the  storm.  The 
colour  of  his  triumph  was  still  in  D'Arcy's  tired 
face  as  he  went  round  once  more  to  see  that  all  was 
well,  and  then  turned  in  for  a  short  sleep  of  utter 
exhaustion. 

It  is  probable  that  the  Captain's  opinion  found 
vent  at  headquarters,  for  D'Arcy  was  excited  on 
his  return  by  a  hint  from  his  firm  that  it  would  be 
wise  of  him  to  take  his  certificate  as  Master-extra, 
and  then  to  apply  for  an  exchange  to  a  steamer. 
D'Arcy  went  down  into  Devonshire  bearing  his 
blushing  honours  thick  upon  him,  and  only  regret- 
ting that  no  one  in  his  home  circle  could  really  under- 
stand his  achievement.  Mrs.  Amyas  and  Milly 
were  adoring,  but  all  that  they  could  grasp  was  that 
Amyas  had  been  in  such  a  storm  that  his  ship  was 
nearly  lost,  at  which  they  shuddered  and  held  their 
breath,  and  rejoiced  over  him  as  one  recovered  from 
death.  But  the  technical  value  of  what  he  had  done 
they  could  not  understand.  He  was  only  D'Arcy 
Amyas  in  Trawles,  to  be  adored  on  account  of  his 
uniform  and  his  gold  lace,  and  some  special  clever- 
ness, it  almost  seemed  to  him,  in  the  fact  that  he 
had  grown  from  a  boy  into  a  man.  But  Mate  of 
the  Hausfrau  he  was  not  to  them,  for  that  full- 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  51 

meaninged  title  rang  in  their  ears  but  as  sounding 
brass. 

And  yet  that  visit  to  his  native  spot  was  a  land- 
mark in  his  life,  unsatisfactory  though  he  was  in- 
clined to  describe  it.  For  strolling  up  through 
Trawles,  on  out  of  the  quaint  little  village  to  a  lane 
leading  vaguely  "  into  the  heart  o'  Devon,"  he  came 
face  to  face  with  a  tall  maiden  in  a  limp  cotton 
gown,  her  hands  full  of  dog-roses — the  month  was 
June — and  her  homely  sunbonnet  hiding  a  face 
made  out  of  dewy  rose  petals  and  blue  sky  framed 
with  yellow  corn.  D'Arcy  barred  the  way  to  the 
shy  feet  that  would  have  fled  by  him,  and  held  out 
his  hard  brown  hand. 

"  Haven't  you  time  to  speak  to  a  friend,  Dorothy  ? 
You've  forgotten  me !  " 

«  No — I  knew  you  were  down.  I  saw  you  in 
church  on  Sunday." 

"  I  should  never  have  guessed  it.  Your  hymn- 
book  got  all  your  attention." 

The  maiden  lips  declined  to  answer  him,  shut 
musingly  one  on  the  other  like  ripe  fruit. 

"  Are  you  as  shy  with  all  your  playmates, 
Dolly  ?  " 

"  I'm  goin'  home,"  murmured  the  girl  in  distress. 
"  Please  don't  stop  me  !  " 

Eighteen  years  spent  in  the  heart  of  the  West 
country  do  not  induce  too  fluent  conversation. 
Dolly's  eyes  spoke,  and  her  tempting  bloom ;  but 
the  innocent  brains  under  the  yellow  hair  prompted 
her  rather  to  be  silent.  It  needed  all  D'Arcy 's  au- 


52  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

dacity  of  experience  to  manage  the  situation.  But 
he  was  by  no  means  innocent  or  without  a  former 
guide  in  such  matters.  He  had  done  such  things 
in  foreign  ports  as  he  would  not  think  of  here, 
where  the  West  country  took  him  back  into  boy- 
hood again.  It  might  have  made  him  bashful, 
coming  within  close  proximity  of  the  yellow-haired 
girl  with  her  hands  full  of  flowers.  But  it  did  not, 
because  he  pushed  such  memories  rudely  aside — his 
claim  to  approach  being,  however,  the  honourable 
plea  that  he  put  no  other  woman  he  had  wooed  on 
the  same  level  as  he  did  her. 

"  I've  been  thinkin'  of  you  half  the  year — right 
out  on  the  other  side  of  the  world,  Dolly — and  you 
treat  me  like  this !  Nights  out  on  deck  I've  shared 
the  watch  with  you.  Haven't  you  anythin'  kind  to 
say  to  me  ?  " 

Dolly's  home,  the  neglected  poverty-stricken 
house  the  curate  rented,  was  only  beyond  a  turn  in 
the  lane.  She  had  only  to  run  to  safety.  But  she 
stood  still,  and  her  cheeks  bloomed  like  the  roses. 

"I'm  glad  to  see  you  back — D'Arcy !  "  she 
breathed,  the  welcoiK_  oeing  a  halting  one  at  best. 
But  the  Mate  of  the  Hausfrau  found  it  very  good. 
He  moved  a  trifle  nearer,  and  his  brown  face  met 
the  one  under  the  safe  screen  of  the  sunbonnet, 
and  so  he  kissed  her — gently,  for  all  his  eagerness 
and  the  lurid  proficiency  of  which — thank  God  ! — 
she  had  no  knowledge.  The  idyl  in  the  Devon- 
shire lane  might  have  lasted  longer  but  for  the 
whistle  of  a  ploughboy  coming  in  from  outlying 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  53 

districts,  which  made  D'Arcy  start  and  draw  his 
arm  away,  and  the  girl  brush  past  him  and  flee 
homeward,  rosy  as  the  sunset. 

As  she  reached  her  own  gate  a  cottager's  child, 
straying  in  the  road,  stared  up  at  her  with  wonderj 
ing  eyes,  and  pointed  to  the  flowers  in  her  hands — 
thorny  roses,  still  moist  with  a  morning  shower. 

"  Where'd  ye  get  they  farloes  to  ?  "  it  said. 

"  Out  of  Paradise ! "  Dolly  answered  dreamily, 
and  her  cheeks  glowed  as  though  indeed  the  Love- 
Angel  touched  them. 


CHAPTER  V 

"  Where  have  you  been,  O  wandering  soul  ? 

I  have  journeyed  far  and  wide  ; 
I  drift  to  a  home  in  any  port, 
Drift  out  upon  any  tide. 

"  And  what  have  you  lost,  O  restless  soul  ? 

I  have  left,  it  seemeth  me, 
A  bit  of  my  youth  in  all  the  ports 
That  are  clustered  round  the  sea." 

LAURENCE  HOPE 

D'ARCY  took  many  plans  away  with  him  from 
Trawles.  His  step-mother  and  Millicent  were 
keeping  on  the  old  home — Drake  House — and  liv- 
ing there  quietly  enough  on  a  modest  income. 
Captain  Amyas  had  left  a  little  money,  and  dis- 
posed of  it  so  that  when  D'Arcy  became  Mate  on 
a  Liner — or,  otherwise,  in  his  thirtieth  year — he 
came  into  two  hundred  a  year,  but  until  that  time 
the  womenkind  would  have  the  use  of  it  as  well  as 
their  own  portion.  This  he  had  done  partly  be- 
cause some  one  had  once  told  him  that  Officers  in 
the  Merchant  Service  could  not  keep  out  of  debt 
without  private  means  on  the  "  swagger  Lines,"  but 
also  to  keep  D'Arcy  from  indiscriminate  marriage 
before  he  had  a  fairly  good  place  in  his  profession. 
It  did  not  have  the  desired  effect,  because  D'Arcy, 
hurrying  off  to  Southampton  to  join  his  ship  for  his 
last  sailing  voyage,  decided  that  he  would  marry 
Dorothy  Culverton  as  soon  as  he  got  his  certificate 

54 


I 
CAPTAIN  AMYAS  55 

for  Master-extra  on  his  return,  and  settle  her  in 
Drake  House  with  his  other  female  belongings. 
There  was  plenty  of  room  in  the  old  house,  which 
he  never  meant  to  give  up,  and  nobody  would  raise 
any  objection.  Drake  House  had  had  a  special  at- 
traction to  D'Arcy  as  a  boy  from  its  very  name ; 
Drake  was  his  hero — what  Devonshire  boy  with  a 
love  of  the  sea  in  him  has  not  regarded  Drake  as  a 
special  patron  saint  of  his  birthplace,  while  the 
relics  of  him  are  still  a  matter  for  pride  in  Exeter 
and  Plymouth,  and  burned  over  the  records  of  his 
wonderful  voyages  ?  Curled  up  in  the  window-seat 
of  Drake  House,  D'Arcy  had  pored  over  books  that 
told  of  those  great  discoveries  in  unknown  seas,  and 
only  grieved  that  he  could  not  be  just  such  another 
righting  captain  !  Those  days 

"  When  Drake  went  down  to  the  Horn 

And  England  was  crowned  thereby !  " 

He  liked  to  think  of  Dorothy  in  the  familiar 
rooms,  looked  after  by  Mrs.  Amyas,  and  petted  by 
stately  Millicent,  who  was  not  likely  to  remain  a 
spinster  herself  for  many  years  ;  besides  which,  he 
did  not  like  the  life  in  the  curate's  house  for  her, 
where  every  one  ran  wild  because  there  was  neither 
time  nor  money  to  attend  to  home-wants,  and  only 
Nell's  strength  of  character  and  personality  kept 
things  together.  Bertie  Culverton  had  fulfilled  the 
foreshadowing  of  his  boyhood  ;  he  was  about  the 
same  age  as  Jack,  D'Arcy's  step-brother,  now  walk- 
ing the  London  hospitals,  but  he  was  developing 


56  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

into  a  type  of  tavern-haunting  young  men  who 
formed  low  associates,  and  followed  town  vices  to 
the  best  of  his  limited  opportunities  in  the  country. 
D'Arcy  had  seen  him  lounging  about  the  inns  at 
Trawles  in  company  with  the  sons  of  small  shop- 
keepers, and  shrank  with  disgust  to  think  of 
Dorothy  coming  in  contact  with  such  as  these. 

He  never  shrank  to  think  of  her  contact  with  a 
Mate  on  board  a  wind-jammer  who  had  touched  the 
pitch  of  moral  things  as  well  as  physical,  and  be- 
come defiled  with  them.  But  in  those  days  he  was 
better,  as  well  as  worse,  than  he  knew. 

His  last  sailing  voyage  extended  over  the  space 
of  nine  months,  and  he  left  his  ship  and  proceeded 
to  London  wondering,  with  a  faint  pang,  if  he 
should  ever  berth  in  a  sailing  ship  again.  Probably 
not — he  meant  to  go  up  in  his  profession,  and  up 
meant  steam,  though  he  were  put  back  to  a  less  re- 
sponsible post  on  a  smaller  vessel.  Yet  his  mind 
clung  round  the  thought  of  the  great  scornful  sails, 
and  all  the  romance  of  such  voyages  woke  and 
blotted  out  the  darker  side.  The  homeward  jour- 
ney had  been  pleasant  too ;  for  the  first  time  in  his 
experience  D'Arcy  had  shipped  in  a  passenger  ship 
and  had  learned  what  it  was  to  have  some  one  to 
speak  to  beyond  those  with  whom  he  worked  the 
ship.  It  gave  him  a  foretaste  of  a  Liner's  possibili- 
ties,— though  the  passengers  had  been  few,  and 
even  those  might  be  counted  as  second-class — and 
went  far  to  reconcile  him  to  the  change  probably 
awaiting  him. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  57 

The  certificate  for  Master-extra  was  less  hard  to 
obtain  than  he  had  imagined.  He  was  secretly 
nervous  at  facing  the  examiners,  and  loathed  the 
moment  when  some  grey-headed,  keen-eyed  old 
gentleman  asked  him  for  a  verbal  proof  of  his  own 
knowledge.  Had  he  liked  his  work  less  thoroughly 
and  been  in  consequence  less  conversant  with  it,  it 
is  probable  that  he  would  have  failed  in  spite  of  his 
coach.  As  it  was,  he  passed,  though  without  much 
eclat,  and  went  out  from  the  ordeal  feeling  as  if  he 
wanted  a  drink  very  badly.  He  stayed  in  town  a 
day  or  so  longer,  to  report  himself  at  Savernakes' 
— or  rather  to  keep  his  existence  before  the  mind 
of  the  firm.  As  he  left  the  Company's  great  offices 
after  his  last  call  there  he  had  an  encounter.  A 
keen-faced  upright  gentleman  passed  him  without 
glancing  in  his  direction,  but  D'Arcy  recognized 
Mr.  Bernard  Savernake,  hardly  altered  for  all  the 
years  that  had  passed  since  that  last  time  when  he 
had  seen  him  .  .  .  the  old  pang  of  that  dis- 
turbing occasion  shot  across  his  heart  with  the 
memory  of  his  fear.  The  youngest  member  of  the 
firm  passed  without  a  pause ;  it  is  probable  that  he 
really  could  not  recognize  the  barefooted  boy 
whom  he  had  tried  to  save  from  what  he  thought 
an  unsuitable  life,  in  the  slight,  bronzed  young  man 
with  a  small  fair  moustache  shading  his  upper 
lip  in  proof  of  his  manhood.  D'Arcy  went  out 
into  Aldgate  feeling  as  though  it  were  a  day  of 
incidents. 

That  very  morning  he  had  learned,  to  his  satis- 


58  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

faction,  that  Savernake,  Cross,  and  Savernake  were 
graciously  pleased  to  have  found  him  a  berth  on 
the  Queen,  the  largest  of  their  passenger  ships. 
From  Mate  to  fourth  Officer  was  a  drop  back  in 
dignity,  but  a  real  advance  in  fortune ;  for  though 
it  was  unlikely  that  he  would  be  moved  up  on  such 
a  boat  as  the  Queen,  and  would  probably  get  his 
promotion  on  a  cargo  carrier,  still  it  was  a  step  in 
the  right  direction.  He  had  got  his  foot  on  the 
lowest  rung  of  the  ladder  now  that  led  to  his  being 
Captain  Amyas  as  he  had  promised  himself. 

He  went  down  to  Devonshire  at  once  without 
saying  he  was  coming,  but  they  knew  he  was  in 
England  and  would  expect  him  any  day.  He  had 
not  only  his  new  appointment  to  announce  to 
them,  but  he  intended  giving  some  hint  of  his  in- 
tentions with  regard  to  Dorothy  Culverton  instead 
of  springing  the  whole  thing  upon  them  when  he 
had  coaxed  Dorothy  out  of  her  shyness  into  a 
definite  answer  and  it  was  all  cut  and  dried. 
D'Arcy  leaned  back  in  the  carriage  as  the  express 
bore  him  out  of  town,  and  his  thoughts  were 
pleasant  ones  while  he  looked  out  of  the  window 
at  the  increasingly  familiar  aspect  of  the  country. 
In  London  he  had  merely  known  that  it  was 
November  in  a  superficial  sense ;  here,  in  the 
country,  that  fact  impressed  itself  upon  him,  with 
the  growing  ascendancy  of  Nature  over  his  mind 
as  it  had  been  when  he  was  a  boy.  The  glaring, 
dripping  woodlands  peeled  off  on  either  hand  as 
the  train  licked  up  the  miles,  rocking  down 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  59 

south.  And  yet  it  was  not  fast  enough  for  his  im- 
patience. 

Dorothy  lay  at  the  end  of  that  journey,  Dorothy 
and  Trawles.  As  he  stepped  out  on  the  familiar 
little  platform  he  looked  round  him  hungrily  for  a 
familiar  face,  but  the  place  was  dreary  and  deserted, 
and  the  rain  splashed  on  to  the  roof  with  a  sound 
that  would  have  depressed  him  at  another  time. 
The  new  and  very  young  porter  was  a  stranger  to 
him,  and  as  he  walked  through  Trawles  the  dull, 
dreary  afternoon  seemed  to  have  driven  every  one 
indoors.  Not  even  the  gorgeous  autumn  tints 
dressing  the  hillsides  above  the  town  could  make 
the  prospect  anything  but  sad  and  wintry.  D'Arcy 
was  used  to  Devon  weather,  and  took  little  notice 
of  the  rain;  he  walked  home  through  the  puddles, 
for  there  is  no  row  of  dilapidated  flies  at  Trawles 
as  there  is  at  other  seaside  places,  and  rang  at  his 
own  door  with  a  sudden  feeling  of  strangeness 
upon  him.  It  almost  seemed  as  though  he  were  a 
guest.  The  country  girl  who  opened  the  door 
stared  at  him  in  stolid  surprise.  She,  like  the 
porter,  was  a  stranger,  and  the  tall  brown-faced 
man  whose  blue  serge  suit  was  damp  with  rain  did 
not  convey  anything  but  a  visitor  to  her  mind. 
She  tried  to  show  him  into  the  parlour, — that 
larger  fireless  front  room  that  was  never  dignified 
by  the  name  of  drawing-room, — but  he  laughed 
and  put  her  aside. 

"  All  right,  my  girl.  I'm  at  home  here.  I'll  go 
into  the  dinin'-room." 


60  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

He  left  her  staring  helplessly,  and  opened  the 
door  of  the  room  where  the  family  usually  sat. 
His  step-mother  and  Milly  were  there  as  he  had 
expected,  both  at  work,  Mrs.  Amyas  with  a  basket 
and  a  pile  of  clothes  to  be  mended,  Millicent  cut- 
ting out  red  flannel  on  the  long  table,  probably  to 
fashion  into  garments  for  the  Dorcas  Society. 
Millicent  was  of  more  practical  use  in  the  parish 
than  the  curate's  own  daughters  had  been.  She 
dropped  the  scissors  as  Amyas  entered,  and  gave  a 
cry. 

"  D'Arcy !  we  didn't  know  you  were  comin'. 
Did  you  write  ?  " 

"No — thought  I'd  surprise  you.  I've  good 
news — just  got  my  appointment  as  fourth  Mate 
on  the  Queen,  our  swagger  ship." 

"  I'm  very  glad,  dear.  Sit  down  and  tell  us  all 
about  it."  Mrs.  Amyas  cleared  a  pile  of  things  off 
a  chair,  and  made  him  sit  down.  She  spoke 
tremulously,  for  all  her  honest  pleasure  in  him  and 
his  success,  and  glancing  at  Millicent,  D'Arcy  saw 
that  she  had  been  crying.  Her  eyes  were  still 
moist,  and  the  lids  red. 

"  Whew !  rain  inside  as  well  as  out ! "  he  said. 
"  What's  the  matter  ?  " 

"  Oh,  we  have  heard  very  bad  news — local 
news,"  Mrs.  Amyas  said  hastily.  "  It  is  a  shame 
to  spoil  your  home-coming  with  such  a  depressing 
story.  Never  mind — tell  us  about  yourself,  D'Arcy." 

"  There's  nothing  to  tell.  I'm  off  again  in  a 
fortnight,  that's  all.  Short  passage  this  time — we 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  61 

shall  be  home  again  in  ten  weeks.  What's  the 
news?  You'd  better  tell  me — I  shall  be  fancyin' 
all  sorts  of  things.  Who's  dead  ?  " 

The  two  women  looked  at  each  other  in  silence. 

"  It's  the  Culvertons  !  "  Milly  burst  out,  her  face 
flooded  with  sudden  red.  "  It's  not  death — it's 
worse  than  death." 

D'Arcy  laid  his  hand  on  the  table  and  clutched 
it  roughly.  The  veins  round  his  eyes  swelled,  and 
his  lips  were  twisted  as  if  with  pain. 

"  Go  on  ! "  he  said  hoarsely. 

"  It's  Dorothy — little  Dolly  that  we  all  played 
with !  And  you  always  liked  her,  D'Arcy.  She 
has  got  into  trouble  —  with  that  brute  —  that 
beast " 

"  Milly  !  Milly  ! "  said  Mrs.  Amyas,  shocked  at 
the  wrathful  force  of  the  girl's  words.  "  It's  the 
vicar ! "  she  explained  with  a  lowered  voice,  look- 
ing round  her  half  nervously.  "  She  confessed  it  at 
last,  when — when  it  was  growing  too  late  to  hide  it 
all.  He  was  down  here  in  the  spring,  and  he  met 
the  poor  child  running  wild  about  the  place,  as  she 
and  Nell  have  always  done,  and  he  got  hold  of  her 
and  deceived  her.  .  .  .  Oh,  it  is  a  shameful 
story !  " 

Neither  of  the  women,  in  their  absorption  in  the 
subject,  noticed  the  silence  of  their  listener.  Milli- 
cent  took  up  the  tale. 

"  Mr.  Culverton  is  broken-hearted,  and  Nell — I 
am  afraid  to  look  at  Nell !  She  has  arranged  every- 
thing. They  are  sendin'  Dolly  away  till — till  it's 


62  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

all  over,  and  they  hope  he  will  marry  her.  The 
scandal  has  reached  the  Bishop  at  last,  and  they  say 
Mr.  Dalkeith  will  put  things  right  as  far  as  they  can 
be  mended — but  he's  a  bad  man,  and  how  is  she 
ever  to  live  down  the  shame  ?  " 

D'Arcy  gave  a  sudden  loud  rough  laugh,  and 
rose.  "  I'm  goin'  out,"  he  said,  and  that  was  all, 
but  they  drew  back  from  him  afraid,  and  listened  to 
hear  him  stumbling  about  the  hall  as  if  he  were 
drunk.  Then  the  door  banged,  and  he  was  gone. 

He  went  out  into  the  dripping  evening  and  then 
stood  and  hesitated,  as  if  he  were  in  a  strange  place 
and  could  not  find  his  way.  Across  the  road  was 
the  familiar  little  beach  that  he  had  known  from 
childhood,  and  Jasper's  cottage,  the  rain  beating  on 
its  zinc  roof.  A  new  generation  of  children 
swarmed  round  Jasper  as  he  mended  his  nets  nowa- 
days, but  the  old  aspects  were  the  same.  D'Arcy 
walked  aimlessly  to  the  sea-wall  and  looked  over  at 
the  coarse  yellow  froth  round  the  Dog  Rock.  Then 
he  turned  and  began  ascending  the  red  cliff-side,  up 
and  up  steadily  in  the  teeth  of  the  west  wind  which 
was  full  of  rain,  as  though  unconscious  of  his  own 
discomfort.  When  he  got  to  the  top  he  looked 
back  at  the  grey  sea  melting  into  the  grey  sky,  the 
streak  of  grey  steel  meeting  it  which  was  the  little 
river  running  through  Trawles,  and  the  flaunting 
shivering  trees  on  the  hillsides.  It  was  a  forlorn 
prospect ;  the  whole  world  seemed  suddenly  bereft 
of  God. 

D'Arcy's  religion  had  been  at  best  but  a  super- 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  63 

stitious  belief  perhaps ;  but  he  had  cherished  some 
sort  of  a  fancy  that  there  was  a  stronger  power  than 
man's,  and  possibly  another  world  where  things 
would  be  better  than  they  were  in  this.  It  seemed 
to  go  out  of  his  heart  all  at  once  like  a  light  sud- 
denly quenched.  Old  blasphemies  heard  in  the 
foc's'le,  when  all  hands  gathered  together  after  the 
horrible  scanty  meal  of  pea-soup  and  duff,  and  the 
evening  watch  had  no  sails  to  attend  to,  returned  on 
his  mind  with  a  hideous  significance.  He  had  not 
thought  much  about  them  at  the  time,  for  boy  as  he 
had  been  then  he  had  laughed  in  empty-headed 
fashion,  and  fancied  that  he  was  equally  knowing  as 
the  men.  But  now  his  apprenticeship  rose  so 
vividly  on  his  plastic  mind,  as  if  the  imprint  had 
lain  there  deeply  embedded,  that  he  could  hear  the 
men's  very  voices  as  they  smoked  and  rolled  oaths 
between  their  lips,  and  see  the  brown,  weather- 
beaten  faces — such  steady  faces,  compelling  admira- 
tion though  aged  by  such  narrow  lives  and  cruel 
hardships. 

These  men  had  been  right — there  was  no  God, 
save  to  laugh  at.  He  made  an  excellent  theme  for 
coarse  jokes,  and  lampoons  too  free  even  for  the 
cuddy,  for  after  he  became  Mate  he  had  heard  less 
of  them.  There  was  no  power  ruling  the  world 
save  the  power  of  men's  lust,  and  he  whose  passions 
were  strongest  was  master.  No  God, — no  Devil, — 
only  men,  and  women  to  ravage  !  He  stumbled  on 
up  the  slippery  red  cliff,  and  crossed  the  ridge  and 
plunged  into  a  plantation  on  the  other  side.  It  led 


64  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

down  into  the  road  which  ran  from  Exeter  into 
Trawles  again ;  he  was  making  a  circuit,  and  in  a 
minute  would  reach  the  very  corner  called  the  Cross- 
roads, where  Dorothy  had  been  knocked  down  by 
her  betrayer  some  twelve  years  ago.  The  child's 
sobbing,  frightened  cry  came  back  to  him  with 
piteous  meaning. 

"  I  wish  he  hadn't  kissed  me ! — I  wish — I  wish  he 
hadn't  kissed  me!" 

He  felt  as  if  he  must  put  his  hands  over  his  ears 
to  shut  it  out ;  but  as  he  pushed  his  way  blindly 
through  the  plantation  his  attention  was  suddenly 
distracted  by  a  little  wild  figure  kneeling  amongst 
the  roots  of  a  great  beech  and  dashing  itself  to  and 
fro  against  the  trunk  in  a  strange  passion  of  rage  or 
grief  or  pain.  He  almost  stumbled  over  it,  before 
he  saw  the  unearthly  thing  to  be  a  tiny  woman's 
figure  wrapped  in  an  old  brown  cloak,  the  hood  of 
which  was  pulled  half  over  her  face. 

«  Nell ! "  he  said  hoarsely.     "  Why,  Nell ! " 

She  ceased  rocking  herself,  and  looked  up  at  him 
from  her  crouching  position  at  his  feet.  They 
stared  into  each  other's  faces  through  the  dreary  dusk. 

"  I  did  not  recognize  you,"  she  said  at  last  in  a 
whisper,  unconscious  of  the  reason.  His  face  had 
altered  ;  it  seemed  to  have  grown  wicked  all  at  once, 
and  full  of  stealthy  passions. 

"  I'm  D'Arcy  Amyas,"  he  said  rapidly.  "  I'm 
your  old  playmate — her  playmate  ! — don't  you  re- 
member ?  We  stood  at  the  Cross-roads  down  there, 
and  he  knocked  her  down.  ." 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  65 

The  girl  drew  her  small  fine  lips  back  from  her 
teeth  and  made  a  horrible  gnashing  noise.  Her 
brown  eyes  were  no  longer  soft,  they  were  full  of 
hard  light.  "  Damn  him  ! "  she  said  fiercely,  her 
light  body  beginning  to  rock  again,  as  if  without 
her  will.  "  I've  seen  her  tortured — I've  seen  her 
bearing  it,  and  frightened  and  going  through  hell 
day  after  day — week  after  week.  ...  I  wish  we 
had  pulled  him  down  then,  that  day,  when  we 
were  children,  and  tried  our  puny  strength  until  we 
choked  him  !  I  would  like  to  make  him  suffer  as 
she  has — I  would  like  to  make  him  go  all  through 
it,  and  worse  !  I  would  like " 

He  interrupted  with  stiff  lips.  "  Did  she — cry 
much  ? "  Some  recollection  of  her  as  a  yellow- 
haired  child,  when  he  had  a  secret  feeling  that  he 
could  not  bear  her  to  shed  tears,  was  back  upon 
him  now. 

"  You  don't  know  !  "  All  the  force  of  a  minute 
since  went  out  of  her  figure.  She  shuddered  closer 
to  the  tree.  "  You're  a  man — you  don't  know  what 
girls  have  to  bear !  You'll  never  know.  I  felt  it 
was  killing  her,  and  I  had  to  stand  by  and  see  it  all. 
Sometimes  I  thought  /  would  kill  her,  and  end 
it  so." 

"  She  has  gone  away,  hasn't  she?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  Why  didn't  you  go  too  ?  " 

"  I  stayed  to  face  it  out  for  her  here.  It  makes 
it  easier  afterwards.  They  think  he  will  marry 
her! — he!  I  must  bear  that  too.  It's  the  best 


66  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

thing  to  hope,  and  that  proves  that  we  are  all  in 
hell,  and  there  is  no  way  out." 

He  looked  at  her,  wondering  blankly  at  the  force 
of  the  nature  cooped  up  in  her  small  frame.  She 
rose  to  her  feet  suddenly,  drawing  her  cloak  round 
her,  her  white  face  turned  steadily  to  rain-sodden 
Trawles  in  the  valley  at  their  feet. 

"  We  can't  kill  him,"  she  said.  "  We  must  try 
and  propitiate  him  if  anything,  because  that  is  the 
best  chance  for  her.  Oh,  that  is  what  is  worse  to 
me  !  I  can  never,  never  take  him  by  the  throat 
and  choke  his  great  life  out  with  my  bare  hands  ! 
All  my  life  I  must  go  on  smiling  at  them  both ;  but 
perhaps  when  we  are  all  dead  I  shall  come  face  to 
face  with  him  with  nothing  between  us  to  hinder 
me." 

She  held  out  her  hand.  It  was  cold  and  wet 
with  rain,  or  her  own  bitter  crying.  He  took  it  in 
his  own  a  minute,  simply,  and  let  it  go  again. 

"  Good-bye,  D'Arcy  ! "  she  said,  turning  to  leave 
him.  "  I  suppose  you  are  going  right  out,  all  round 
the  world.  Well,  it's  a  bad  world,  and  you'll  find  it 
all  the  same  wherever  you  go.  I  know  you  will, 
though  I  never  get  beyond  this  corner  of  it  in 
Trawles.  And  you  won't  care  at  last,  and  I  shan't 
either.  It's  all  the  same,  here  or  anywhere." 

She  ran  away  into  the  shadows,  a  light  fluttering 
figure,  leaving  the  echo  of  her  words  in  the  wide 
godless  world  of  which  Trawles  was  a  corner. 
***** 

As  he  came  down  into  the  town  a  piano  organ 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  67 

outside  one  of  the  badly-lighted  shops  struck  up  a 
cracked  waltz-tune.  An  organ  was  rare  in  Trawles, 
but  this  one  had  reached  even  its  far  off  neighbour- 
hood, and  played  old  tunes  in  a  slipshod  fashion, 
for  it  was  by  no  means  a  new  instrument.  There 
was  no  one  but  D'Arcy  to  listen  in  such  weather ; 
he  had  the  full  benefit  of  it  as  he  slung  past  in  the 
wet.  It  was  a  once  popular  song  that  every  one 
knows  — 

"  The  sailor's  wife  the  sailor's  star  shall  be  — 
Yeo  ho !  we  go 
Across  the  sea ; 
The  sailor's  wife  the  sailor's  star  shall  be " 

D'Arcy  paused  and  listened  for  a  second,  the 
corners  of  his  mouth  drawn  up  into  a  hideous 
smile. 


CHAPTER  VI 

"  Men  tell  me  of  truth  now — '  False  ! '  I  cry. 

Of  beauty — '  A  mask,  friend  !     Look  beneath.' 
We  take  our  own  method,  the  Devil  and  I, 
With  '  pleasant '  and  '  fair,'  and  '  wise  '  and  '  rare,' 
And  the  best  we  wish  to  what  lives,  is — death ! 
Which  even  in  wishing  perhaps  we  lie." 

ROBERT  BROWNING 

THERE  is  a  hotel  at  Southampton  called  Kelway's, 
where  steamship  officers  used  to  foregather  muchly  ^ 
and  seafarers  of  all  grades  seemed  to  be  instinctively 
attracted  as  long  as  their  purse  allowed  them,  some 
years  ago.  Not  that  the  place  was  immoderate,  but 
that  any  one  under  the  rank  of  the  senior  officer 
seldom  has  money  to  spend  on  hotels  between 
trips,  unless  he  be  one  of  the  few  merchantmen 
favoured  by  Providence  with  private  means — in 
which  case  he  would  probably  go  to  the  Sou'- 
western. 

D'Arcy  Amyas  passed  the  fortnight  before  start- 
ing in  his  new  berth  on  a  steamer,  at  Kelway's,  the 
while  he  spent  money  recklessly  about  the  town,  and 
turned  his  experiences  abroad  to  account  in  "  see- 
ing life "  at  home.  There  is  much  to  be  done  at 
Southampton  for  the  merchantman — probably  even 
more  than  in  London,  because  he  is  on  his  own 
ground  and  almost  inevitably  bound  to  know  some- 
thing of  the  seaport.  Southampton  is  to  the  Mer- 

68 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  69 

cantile  Marine  very  much  what  Portsmouth,  or  Ply- 
mouth, is  to  the  Navy.  After  a  week  D'Arcy's  sun- 
burn had  faded  a  little,  and  he  had  contrived  to  look 
white  and  drawn  about  the  face,  with  that  horrible 
unwholesome  look  which  indulgence  can  give.  He 
did  not  spend  all  his  money  at  once,  because  he 
meant  it  to  last  him  till  the  ship  sailed  at  least,  and 
he  went  about  his  dissipation  with  the  cold-blooded 
intensity  he  had  but  just  developed.  His  head 
spun,  and  good  food  tasted  worse  than  the  old  duff 
and  yellow  peas  of  his  sailing  days,  but  he  plunged 
a  thought  deeper,  and  did  his  best  to  bring 
his  body  to  the  level  where  he  felt  his  soul 
to  be. 

He  came  into  the  smoking-room  of  the  hotel  one 
evening,  and  found  it  deserted  save  for  a  single 
occupant.  Kelway's  hummed  in  the  mornings  about 
eleven  o'clock;  but  at  this  hour  the  queer  little 
room  under  the  skylight  looked  almost  forlorn. 
D'Arcy  glanced  at  the  one  other  person  present ; 
he  was  an  elderly  man,  hale  and  bluff,  with  a  twinkle 
in  his  deep  eyes,  and  a  twang  of  the  salt  about  him 
somehow.  The  younger  man  remembered  seeing 
him  night  after  night  in  company  with  two  men 
whose  boats  he  knew  had  left  that  very  day — Liner 
Captains  both  of  them,  and  big  men  at  that.  Evi- 
dently the  solitary  smoker  must  be  a  person  of 
importance  in  that  little  world  which  is  bounded  by 
blue  water  and  holds  the  feeding  of  the  population 
of  Britain  in  the  hollow  of  its  hand. 

D'Arcy  crossed  to  the  fireplace,  struck  a  match, 


;o  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

and  attempted  to  light  a  pipe.  It  went  out,  and  he 
suppressed  a  half-uttered  oath.  The  old  man  looked 
up,  and  smiled  grimly. 

"  H'm !  the  sooner  your  ship  sails  the  better  for 
you,  I  think  !  "  he  said  dryly. 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  Amyas  asked,  turning 
round  fiercely. 

"  What  I  say.  Look  at  your  hand  !  It's  shaking 
so  that  the  match  goes  out  every  time.  There !  I 
told  you  so  !  " 

D'Arcy  threw  the  useless  vesta  into  the  grate, 
and  dropped  into  a  chair.  He  got  the  pipe  alight 
at  last,  and  turned  his  bloodshot  eyes  on  the  old 
man  with  a  scowl. 

"  Been  at  it  pretty  hard  ?  "  said  that  worthy,  coolly. 
"  Lord !  can't  I  remember  the  same  sort  of  burst 
when  I  was  your  age !  Don't  spoil  your  health 
though.  You  won't  enjoy  it  any  more  if  you  do, 
and  there's  a  lot  of  enjoyment  at  sea." 

The  anger  went  out  of  D'Arcy  at  the  genuinely 
kindly  tone.  He  was  at  all  times  quick  to  feel,  and 
emotional,  under  a  rather  hard  exterior.  He  was 
not  drunk  at  the  moment  either,  as  it  chanced, 
though  he  had  been  so  off  and  on  for  days,  and  as 
the  liquor  died  out  of  him  it  was  succeeded  by  a 
reaction  of  fear  and  loneliness.  He  dropped  his 
head  on  his  hand,  and  spoke  as  he  felt. 

"  Think  so  ?  Can't  say  I've  found  it.  It's  a  hell 
of  a  life!" 

"  Don't  be  a  fool ! "  said  the  other  good-naturedly. 
"  You're  down  from  the  drink.  Have  a  moderate 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  71 

B.  and  S.  and  you'll  steady  your  nerves  again.  Just 
off  a  wind-jammer,  aren't  you  ?  " 

"  Yes.     Coin'  into  steam  this  trip." 

"  I  wish  I  were  you !  First  trip  on  a  Liner ! 
Gad !  it  makes  my  blood  dance.  I  was  on  the 
Indian  Line  for  eighteen  years,  and  then  like  a  fool 
I  left  it.  I'm  too  old  to  go  back  now,  but  I'd  like 
to  take  my  old  tub  out  once  more." 

D'Arcy  looked  up  with  a  new  interest.  He  was 
very  sorry  and  sick,  and  he  began  to  be  tired  of  the 
level  of  life  on  which  he  had  been  living  since  he 
left  Trawles.  He  had  not  nearly  done  with  vice, 
but  he  would  have  liked  a  more  refined  flavour 
about  it,  as  a  vitiated  palate  longs  for  less  simple 
fare.  Much  could  be  done  in  Simnal  Street  and 
the  Ditches  in  those  days,  but  it  was  an  elementary 
life,  and  the  most  rudimentary  of  educations  unfits 
a  man  for  the  real  appreciation  of  those  classical 
quarters.  Besides,  he  had  heard  of  the  results  on 
other  men  .  .  .  and  he  was  sometimes  afraid. 

"What's  the  great  advantage  in  a  Liner?"  he 
said.  "  A  decent  cargo  carrier  is  as  good,  it  seems 
to  me.  Sailin'  ships  are  rough  all  the  world  over, 
but  a  big  tramp  means  food  you  can  eat,  and  good 
housin'.  After  all,  you  won't  get  more  in  a  mail-boat 
— or  less  work."  He  took  the  tumbler  the  waiter 
silently  brought  him.  It  had  been  ordered  and 
paid  for  by  his  new  friend,  who  watched  him  drink 
with  cheery  patronage.  The  lines  round  D'Arcy 's 
lips  relaxed,  and  his  eyes  cleared.  He  sat  quiet 
and  listened  to  the  reply  to  his  question. 


72  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  Women  !  "  said  the  old  Captain,  laughing ;  "  and 
cards  and  drink  if  you  want  them — can't  say  I  did. 
They  are  not  my  weakness.  But  society  I  hold  that 
a  man  does  want,  and  that  he  gets,  otherwise  he 
runs  amuck  when  he  gets  ashore,  just  because  he's 
been  cut  off  his  natural  heritage  on  the  water." 
The  blue  eyes  danced  wickedly,  and  he  chuckled  at 
his  own  phrasing  of  what  he  considered  an  amiable 
weakness.  "  You've  just  been  out  of  sight  of  a 
petticoat  for  six  months  and  more  at  a  time  on 
a  sailing  ship,  haven't  you  ?  " 

"  We  had  passengers  last  trip." 

"Ah!  possible?" 

"  No — nothin'  to  boast  of.  They  made  a  change 
though.  We  signed  them  on  as  cook's  mate  and 
stewardesses,  and  they  shifted  for  themselves  all 
right.  There  was  one  old  girl  who  used  to  cook  in 
her  washin'-basin  over  a  lamp  contrivance  she  had. 
We  winked  at  it  because  she  made  the  food  eatable 
where  our  '  Doctor '  spoiled  it.  I've  gone  down  and 
helped  her  many  a  time,  partly  for  company." 

"  Yes,  you  get  pretty  sick  of  the  Skipper,  and  the 
Mate,  and  the  starboard  watch,  don't  you,  by  the 
time  you  come  into  port?  And  the  food,  even 
in  the  cabin  of  a  well-found  ship,  is  monotonous. 
You'll  see  if  you  don't  find  life  more  worth  living 
this  trip.  What's  your  berth  ?  " 

"  Fourth  Mate.     I've  been  Mate." 

"  Yes,  I  know — you  must  go  back  in  order  to  go 
forward !  Fourth  Mate  !  You  will  have  a  time,  if 
you  want  to,  and  your  Skipper  has  any  bowels  of 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  73 

compassion.  You  are  the  man  who  ought  to  look 
after  the  passengers — there  is  no  choice  about  it — 
you  and  the  Chief  Officer.  You've  got  a  broken 
night — four  to  eight's  the  watch — but  it's  worth  it, 
my  boy — it's  worth  it ! "  He  took  a  long  pull  at 
his  own  grog,  and  his  eyes  twinkled  more  than  ever. 
"  Now  look  here,  I'm  Captain  Ronny  of  the  old 
Vega,  Indian  and  European  Line,  and  I  can  give 
you  tips  though  I'm  good  for  nothing  else  now. 
Stick  to  the  married  women,  my  boy — for  a  time  at 
least.  They'll  educate  you.  They  are  not  danger- 
ous to  bachelors,  and  they'll  give  you  all  you  want ! 
You  can't  afford  to  marry,  but  can  afford  to  enjoy 
yourself." 

"  They've  got  husbands — sometimes  !  " 
"What  is  a  husband  to  a  clever  woman ?  Just 
the  gear  she  wants  to  work  with  !  He's  the  stand- 
ing rigging,  that's  his  business.  Don't  get  yourself 
mixed  up  with  a  fool,  of  course.  Choose  a  clever 
woman — she'll  never  let  the  chart  out  of  her  own 
hands ! " 

D'Arcy  listened  and  pondered,  and  the  old  rep- 
robate talked  on,  telling  sea-tales  that  became  more 
sulphurous  as  time  went  on.  D'Arcy  forgot  to  go 
out  as  usual;  the  smoking-room  remained  their 
own,  and  they  drew  their  chairs  nearer  together  and 
discussed  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  where  laws 
were  not,  and  D'Arcy's  new  belief  became  convic- 
tion. He  took  a  fancy  to  Captain  Ronny,  and  that 
gentleman  returning  it  in  kind,  they  spent  the  re- 
mainder of  D'Arcy's  leave  together  "  seeing  life  "  in 


74  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

a  less  lurid  fashion,  but  no  less  decidedly  than  the 
younger  man  had  done  by  himself.  It  was  due  to 
this  intimacy  that  D'Arcy  was  saved  going  to  his 
new  work  half  unfit  through  dissipation  and  with 
quite  empty  pockets,  for  the  late  Captain  of  the 
Vega  had  come  into  money  and  was  a  fairly  wealthy 
man.  He  was  taking  a  house  at  Southampton  for 
old  associations'  sake,  and  had  got  put  up  at  Kel- 
way's  during  the  legal  business  connected  with  it, 
when  he  first  encountered  Amyas.  He  stood  by 
D'Arcy  to  the  last,  and  went  on  board  with  him — 
to  see  the  ship,  he  said,  but  really  to  see  if  he  knew 
her  Captain.  Finding  that  he  did,  and  knowing  that 
he  was  a  person  of  importance  in  his  way,  he  good- 
naturedly  gave  it  to  be  understood  that  he  was  a 
friend  of  young  Amyas',  who  therefrom  gained  a 
reflection  of  the  importance,  and  was  approved  of 
in  his  Captain's  eyes.  When  Captain  Ronny  left 
the  boat  he  put  his  hand  on  D'Arcy's  shoulder  and 
invited  him  to  come  and  see  him  on  his  return. 

"  I'm  taking  a  big  house  out  at  Portswood,  and 
you  must  come  and  stay  with  us.  You've  not  met 
my  wife  yet.  She's  a  good  little  woman,  but  she 
has  a  sharp  tongue."  He  sighed,  looking  perfectly 
cheerful  all  the  while.  "  I  married  before  I  was 
Mate,"  he  said,  "  and  I  was  a  darned  fool  to  do  it ! 
Don't  you  marry,  my  boy ;  keep  clear  of  a  '  con- 
sort/ and  let  me  know  when  you're  ashore !  " 

Amyas  was  glad  of  the  invitation,  for  it  would 
save  him  going  to  Devonshire,  and  he  was  likely  to 
be  hard  up  on  his  return.  He  did  not  feel  it  much 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  75 

on  board,  because  the  other  Officers  had  done  like 
Captain  Ronny  and  married  early,  which  hampered 
their  expenditure.  What  his  mates  could  not, 
D'Arcy  had  less  temptation  to  do,  but  he  observed 
the  economy  necessary  to  support  a  wife  and  family, 
and  Captain  Ronny 's  advice  soaked  well  into  his 
mind. 

It  was  a  full  boat,  for  the  Queen  was  the  favourite 
on  the  Line,  and  her  Captain  was  Commodore. 
Savernake,  Cross,  and  Savernake  relied  for  profit 
nearly  as  much,  by  this  time,  on  the  passenger  de- 
partment as  on  cargo.  Their  sailing  ships  still  went 
all  round  the  world ;  their  "  tramp  "  steamers — im- 
mense cargo  carriers  these — mostly  confined  them- 
selves to  certain  ports  in  Spain  and  the  East  and 
West  Coasts  of  Africa  ;  but  the  bigger  Liners  coped 
with  nearly  all  the  increase  of  passengers  to  and 
from  Johannesburg,  running  as  they  did  direct  to 
Port  Elizabeth.  The  route  lay  from  Southampton 
to  the  Cape  Verde  Islands,  and  then  to  Port  Eliza- 
beth, and  it  was  a  boast  of  the  Company  that, 
though  under  no  contract  to  carry  mails  (that  came 
later),  they  were  as  regular  in  their  departure  and 
arrivals  as  the  mail-boats,  and  spared  neither  coal 
nor  seamanship  to  satisfy  their  patrons.  For  this 
reason,  perhaps,  they  were  vastly  used  by  business 
men,  to  whom  time  meant  money,  and  who,  by 
travelling  with  Savernakes',  could  reach  Durban  in 
twenty-one  days  at  the  outside,  and  be  in  Johannes- 
burg in  another  twenty-seven  hours ;  but  the  voy- 
age was  even  more  one  of  pleasure  than  on  the  mail- 


76  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

steamers.  Relying  as  the  Company  did  more  and 
more  on  the  passenger  list,  it  behoved  them  to  make 
the  trip  enjoyable,  and  their  men  were  chosen  for 
social  gifts  after  the  essential  necessity  of  good  sea- 
manship. The  Captain  whose  boat  was  popular  had 
the  best  chance  of  promotion,  which  made  the  tone 
of  the  whole  Line  and  those  employed  on  it  some- 
what different  from  other  companies.  On  leaving 
Durban  the  boats  went  to  Madagascar,  where  the 
bulk  of  their  cargo  was  discharged  and  retaken,  the 
bigger  boats  being  a  week  at  Madagascar,  after 
which  they  returned  to  Durban  and  followed  the 
same  route  as  coming  out.  The  immensely  heavy 
rates  charged  to  passengers  were  lightly  grumbled 
at  by  the  class  of  people  catered  for.  Poor  men  did 
not  travel  on  Savernakes',  and  the  wealthy  secretly 
liked  the  idea  that  they  could  afford  to  pay  for  a 
certain  exclusiveness. 

D'Arcy  found  that  on  board  such  boats  as  the 
Queen,  to  be  in  Savernakes'  passenger  steamers  was 
regarded  as  synonymous  to  the  term  "  gentleman." 
No  one  could  hope  to  climb  to  such  a  height,  even 
though  he  might  work  his  way  to  Master  of  one  of 
their  sailing  ships,  unless  he  were  "  all  right  "  by 
birth  and  education.  He  probably  owed  his  own 
good  fortune  as  much  to  being  the  son  of  Alfred 
Amyas,  R.N.,  and  to  Mr.  Bernard  Savernake's  in- 
fluence, as  to  his  own  hard  work.  It  was  somewhat 
of  a  blow  to  his  pride,  for  he  had  thought  that  his 
prowess  in  his  last  voyage  but  one  had  been  his  rec- 
ommendation. But  he  was  rapidly  learning  cyni- 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  77 

cism.  He  shrugged  his  shoulders  inwardly,  and 
dropped  the  illusion  that  to  be  the  best  man  in  the 
ship  from  a  sailor's  point  of  view  was  sufficient 
qualification  for  any  post.  To  be  a  perfect  host 
was  now  the  standard  set  up  before  his  eyes  day 
and  night,  and  to  gain  such  a  reputation,  at  least, 
was  to  make  yourself  acceptable  to  the  women. 
"  Stick  to  the  married  women — they  will  educate 
you !  "  said  Captain  Ronny.  "  Let  the  women 
manage  the  men,  and  you  manage  the  women  ! " 
said  the  authorities  of  the  boat  deck.  D'Arcy 
pondered.  It  seemed  to  him  to  point  all  one  way, 
"  takin'  it  by  and  large,"  as  he  would  himself  have 
expressed  it. 

There  was  on  board,  that  trip,  a  certain  Lady 
Arthur  Hyde,  wife  of  one  of  the  Directors  of  the 
Company,  and  in  consequence  a  person  of  impor- 
tance, who  had  her  deck  cabin  and  sat  on  the  Cap- 
tain's right  hand  at  meals,  and  was  treated  deferen- 
tially. She  belonged  to  that  class  of  women  who 
never  look  old,  and  so  it  was  impossible  to  guess 
her  age.  But  she  was  probably  not  very  old  in 
those  days,  though  considerably  older  than  D'Arcy 
Amyas.  He  did  not  observe  her  greatly  at  first, 
save  as  a  pretty  woman  with  a  clear-featured  face 
and  rich  dark  hair.  His  business  was  with  the  less- 
important  passengers,  and  he  was  moody  and  dis- 
trait for  the  first  three  days  of  the  passage  out.  He 
noticed,  however,  that  Lady  Arthur  quietly  quelled 
any  demonstration  which  might  be  made  in  her 
honour,  and  also  that  she  was  a  good  sailor,  for  both 


78  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

which  things  he  respected  her.  The  boat  was  still 
in  the  Bay,  labouring  against  a  choppy  sea,  when 
one  day  it  happened  that  D'Arcy,  off  duty  for  the 
moment,  strolled  down  the  deck  and  leaned  on  the 
railing  overlooking  the  second-class,  meditating. 
There  was  a  frown  on  his  fair  face,  and  his  cap  was 
pushed  sullenly  over  his  eyes,  for  the  spectre  of 
Trawles  would  not  be  quite  laid  do  what  he  might, 
and  occasionally  it  rose  up  before  him  still.  As  he 
leant  there  a  lady's  head  appeared  on  the  stair, 
coming  up  from  the  lower  deck.  The  boat  was 
rolling,  and  she  seemed  to  have  some  difficulty  in 
keeping  her  feet,  for  she  clung  to  the  rail,  panting 
and  laughing.  The  Officer  sprang  to  the  rescue, 
and  as  he  took  her  hand  to  help  her  on  deck  he 
saw  that  it  was  Lady  Arthur.  Her  brilliant  amused 
face  fronted  him,  not  half  a  yard  away,  as  she  re- 
covered her  balance. 

"  Thank  you !  What  dreadful  things  ships' 
ladders  are !  You  ought  to  have  a  sentry  al- 
ways posted  at  the  bottom  to  help  poor  women 
up." 

"  I'm  afraid  it  is  rather  a  tryin'  time  for  ladies 
until  we  are  out  of  the  Bay,"  he  said,  smiling.  His 
lips  relaxed  and  his  eyes  narrowed  at  the  corners. 
Lady  Arthur  looked  at  him,  and  leaned  carelessly 
on  the  railing  also,  as  though  to  get  her  breath. 
"  You  are  such  a  good  sailor  that  you  should  not 
mind,"  he  added. 

"  I  wish  I  could  say  as  much  for  my  maid.  I 
have  just  been  into  the  second-class  to  look  after 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  79 

her,  instead  of  her  looking  after  me.  Poor  girl ! 
she  is  very  ill." 

"  We  shall  be  in  calmer  waters  to-morrow.  But 
you  know  this  route  as  well  or  better  than  I." 

"  Yes  ;  I  have  travelled  this  way  several  times. 
I  feel  bound  to,  you  know,  to  show  my  confidence 
in  the  Line  !  "  She  laughed,  and  showed  that  she 
had  perfect  teeth.  "  Are  you  a  new-comer,  Mr. — 
er " 

"  My  name  is  D'Arcy  Amyas.  I  am  fourth  Offi- 
cer, and  this  is  my  first  voyage  on  a  Liner." 

"  And  before  that  ?  " 

"  I  was  Mate  of  a  sailin'  ship." 

"  I  know  what  that  means — far  more  grave  re- 
sponsibility than  your  present  position.  I  went  for 
a  voyage  in  a  sailing  ship  once,  for  my  health. 
What  is  it  you  call  them  ?  Wind-jammers  ?  "  Her 
pretty  mouth  played  with  the  word  daintily.  "  Do 
you  like  this  better,  Mr.  Amyas  ?  " 

"  It  is  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  it  means  pro- 
motion. Otherwise  I  miss  the  responsibility,  as 
you  call  it.  I  am  almost  sorry  that  my  sailin'  days 
are  over." 

"  That  is  a  poor  compliment  to  us — the  passen- 
gers, I  mean  !  " 

"  I  did  not  know  that  I  might  pay  you  compli- 
ments," he  said,  his  voice  softened  a  little. 

She  laughed  again,  and  looked  at  him.  If  there 
was  not  encouragement  in  her  glance  he  might  be 
excused  for  mistaking  it. 

"  If  you  would  give  me  a  chance "  he  began. 


80  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

The  flattening  of  the  vowels  was  very  apparent  in 
his  speech  to  her  unaccustomed  ears.  It  was  too 
natural  to  him  to  be  affected,  but  it  made  every  one 
else's  pronunciation  broad — they  sounded  as  if  they 
were  saying  "  charnce  "  and  "  thourght,"  however 
pure  their  English,  from  simple  contrast. 

"  Are  you  a  Somerset  man  ?  "  she  asked  briefly. 

"  No ;  Devon." 

"  I  thought  so."  Her  smile  was  half  tender  as 
she  turned  to  him  with  some  speculation  in  her 
face.  "  I  think  we  are  going  to  be  friends,"  she 
said.  D' Arcy's  eyes  answered  for  him.  There  was 
no  law  against  his  looking  compliments.  "  Tell  me 
your  watches — stay,  I  know  them.  Four  to  eight, 
is  it  not?" 

"  Yes  ;  but  the  watches  are  doubled  to  Madeira, 
you  know." 

"  Yes.  Four  to  eight"  She  seemed  to  meditate. 
"  And  then  you  go  your  rounds  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  Don't  frighten  me  by  waking  me  up,  whatever 
you  do  !  It  is  so  very  alarming  to  have  one's  sleep 
broken  into  by  an  Officer  looking  in  to  see  if  one 
has  put  out  the  light,  or  shut  the  port-hole,  or  some- 
thing." 

"  Tell  me  your  cabin  number  then,  that  I  may 
remember  it." 

Their  eyes  met  steadily  for  an  instant.  "  Twenty 
— on  the  starboard  side.  I  have  a  deck  cabin,"  she 
said  quietly. 

The   dressing   bugle  sounded   faintly,  from   the 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  81 

bowels  of  the  ship  as  it  seemed.  She  turned  to  go, 
and  he  held  out  his  hand  to  assist  her.  The  ship 
was  rolling  heavily,  and  the  deck  empty  save  for 
themselves.  As  she  put  her  hand  in  his  she  laughed 
again,  and  he  caught  a  gleam  of  her  eyes,  brilliant 
below  her  lashes.  Then  the  ship  was  caught  by  a 
heavy  sea,  and  dipped  almost  to  the  water-line — he 
seized  the  rail  with  one  hand,  and  felt  her  flung 
against  his  breast,  his  right  arm  closing  round  her 
and  her  scented  hair  against  his  face. 

"  Please  forgive  me,"  he  said,  and  his  eyes  blazed 
with  nothing  like  penitence.  "  I  was  obliged  to 
steady  you." 

"  Could  we  either  of  us  help  it  ? "  said  Lady 
Arthur. 


"  You're  going  straight  for  success ! "  said  Ran- 
som, the  Navigating  Officer,  a  week  later ;  and  he 
spoke  sardonically. 

D'Arcy  looked  up  sharply.  He  had  just  come 
on  to  the  bridge  at  a  run  to  relieve  his  senior ;  it 
was  eight  bells,  and  the  first  of  the  dog  watches. 
Most  of  the  passengers  were  dozing  in  deck-chairs, 
but  he  had  paused  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder  for  a 
last  word,  and  he  wondered  if  Ransom  knew  with 
whom. 

"  I  say,"  said  the  second  Officer,  as  he  turned  to 
go  and  leave  Amyas  in  charge  of  the  great  boat 
and  a  thousand  lives  or  so,  "  what  time  do  you  get 
to  bed,  Amyas  ?  " 


82  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  The  usual  time,  I  suppose." 

"  Call  twelve  o'clock  the  usual  time  for  fourth 
Officer  ?  I  heard  you  come  up  last  night,  and  you 
had  to  turn  out  again  at  four !  You  only  get  a  few 
hours'  sleep  that  way.  Well,  it's  your  affair.  I 
suppose  you  think  it's  worth  it." 

D'Arcy  did  not  answer.  He  took  up  the  glass 
and  scanned  the  horizon,  wondering  if  Ransom 
knew  anything  to  matter.  .  .  .  He  was  playing 
a  dangerous  game,  but  he  had  a  clever  woman  to 
back  him.  If  Captain  Harrington  would  only 
choose  to  remain  blind,  things  were  easy  enough ; 
the  Chief  Officer  was  not  a  man  who  would  inter- 
fere. But  there  were  limits  to  official  endurance,  as 
D'Arcy  knew,  and  if  he  had  been  seen  coming  out 
of  a  deck  cabin  at  midnight 

He  frowned,  and  leaned  his  shoulder  against  the 
support  of  the  flying-bridge  which  stretched  over 
his  head.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  had  slept 
most  of  the  morning,  missing  his  breakfast,  he  was 
very  tired.  There  was  nothing  to  look  at  in  the 
smooth  blue  sea  of  the  tropics,  and  he  pulled  his 
cap  over  his  eyes  to  shut  out  the  glare,  and  dozed, 
standing  upright  with  folded  arms.  It  was  an  old 
trick  learned  in  his  latter  sailing  days,  but  not  often 
practised  by  him  then,  for  he  had  been  too  anxious. 

He  got  his  relief  at  eight  o'clock,  and  went  off  to 
the  Officers'  Mess,  hungry  and  tired.  The  physical 
satisfaction  of  throwing  himself  down  to  the  little 
table,  and  facing  the  tempting  dishes  the  steward 
brought,  was  infinite.  Rather  different  living  this 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  83 

to  that  of  a  sailing  ship,  as  Captain  Ronny  had  re- 
marked !  He  smiled  a  little,  and  made  his  choice 
between  half-a-dozen  different  dishes. 

Later  on  he  went  on  deck,  and  stood  about  chat- 
ting with  different  groups,  but  he  did  not  go  direct 
to  Lady  Arthur  Hyde.  She  had  taught  him  to 
reach  his  goal  by  circuitous  routes  among  other 
things.  When  at  last  he  sank  into  a  chair  by  her 
side  it  was  past  ten,  and  several  of  the  passengers 
were  making  a  move. 

"  Well,  D'Arcy  ? "  said  the  woman.  There  was 
no  one  near  them. 

"  I  thought  I  was  never  goin'  to  get  a  word  with 
you !  " 

"  You've  had  plenty  at  various  times,  haven't 
you  ?  Too  many  for  us  both,  perhaps."  She 
sighed  and  laughed  in  her  usual  fashion.  "  I  wonder 
why  I've  given  you  so  much,  D'Arcy  ! " 

"  You've  been  an  angel !  " 

"  Oh,  I  know.  You  could  hardly  say  less — con- 
sidering !  I  have  been  .  .  .  something,  I  ad- 
mit. But  I  fell  in  love  with  you  the  first  day  I  saw 
you,  scowling  absently  at  the  Captain's  back — /  was 
talking  to  the  Captain,  and  could  see  you  over  his 
shoulder  !  I  asked  who  you  were,  and  knew  your 
name  and  position  quite  well  by  the  time  you  told 
me  them  the  day  before  we  reached  Madeira.  Now 
don't  get  vain — it  is  no  merit  of  yours,  I  am  sure, 
sulky,  blue-eyed  boy  that  you  looked  !  Only — I 
liked  you  ! "  Her  very  voice  was  a  caress. 

D'Arcy  was  neither  so  fluent  nor  subtle  as  she ; 


84  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

he  found  a  difficulty  in  expressing  himself  on  the 
same  lines,  at  this  point  in  his  career,  and  was  con- 
scious that  his  words  halted  when  he  spoke,  after 
the  exquisite  grace  of  her  manner. 

"  I  shall  never  forget  the  first  kiss  you  gave  me  ! " 
was  what  he  actually  said,  which  remark  was  so  trite 
that  it  had  at  least  the  advantage  of  never  having 
been  made  to  Lady  Arthur  before. 

"  You  dreadful  boy !  how  outspoken  you  are," 
she  said,  half  laughing  and  half  sighing.  "  I  surely 
did  not '  give ' — which  is  as  much  as  to  say  I  offered 
it !  As  far  as  I  remember  you  began  to  implore,  and 
then  helped  yourself  without  waiting  for  an  answer ! " 

"  Well,  anyhow  there  was  no  harm  in  that — was 
there  ?  "  he  said.  It  was  his  turn  to  laugh. 

"  No  harm  ?  "     Her  tone  was  reminiscent. 

"  Not  in  itself." 

"  Kissing  may  become  very  complicated ! " 
breathed  Lady  Arthur. 

"  Are  you  blamin'  me?  " 

"  Perhaps  I  am  blaming  myself! " 

D'Arcy  tacked.  "  After  all,  when  a  woman  has 
given  her  lips  she  has  given  everything,"  he  said. 
"  The  rest  is  only  a  detail." 

"  Have  you  found  it  so  ?  No,  I  beg  your  par- 
don— I  should  not  have  said  that ! "  she  added 
quickly,  meeting  his  eye  for  an  instant.  "  D'Arcy, 
when  you  look  like  that  you  might  be  a  poet  or  a 
painter,  or  something  else  uncomfortably  artistic. 
Why  didn't  they  make  you  an  artist  ?  You  sketch 
beautifully." 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  85 

"  I  had  an  awful  fright  as  a  little  chap  once  over 
that.  An  old  friend  of  my  father's  advised  him  to 
have  me  taught  paintin',  and  I  was  bent  on  goin' 
to  sea.  By  Jove !  I  can  remember  the  feelin'  of 
impotent  rage  now !  I  wouldn't  touch  a  pencil  for 
months." 

"Silly  boy!  And  it  is  just  that  which I 

wonder  if  I  dare  tell  you  a  secret  ?  " 

«  Try." 

"  It  is  just  that  odd  artistic  strain  in  you  that  will 
make  all  your  successes — of  a  kind.  It  will  always 
win  you  your  way  with  women.  Do  you  think,  if 
you  had  been  quite  an  ordinary  young  man  in  uni- 
form, that  I  should  have — should  have  gone  any 
further,  after  tumbling  into  your  arms  that  day? 
Of  course  not.  But  I  talked  to  you,  and  found 
that,  sailor  as  you  are,  you  look  at  things  from  a 
standpoint  of  some  creature  whose  soul  you  seem 
to  have  stolen.  You  are  a  literary  man  rather  than 
a  merchantman — in  spite  of  yourself." 

He  tried  not  to  look  flattered,  and  in  a  curious 
way  really  did  deprecate  her  words. 

"  I'm  a  sailor  all  through,  I'm  afraid — very  ordi- 
nary clay.  I  roughed  it  for  five  years." 

"  Did  you  like  the  roughing  it,  my  Sybarite  ?  " 

"  I  didn't  mind.  I  loved  my  profession,  and  every 
detail  of  it  interested  me." 

"  The  enthusiasm  of  the  artist,  my  dear  D'Arcy. 
You  can't  get  away  from  it.  And  yet  how  young 
you  still  are  to  talk  as  you  do !  That  was  one  of 
your  chief  charms  to  me.  You  looked  so  young  I 


86  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

thought  I  might  have  the  honour  and  glory  of  being 
your  first  love.  Was  I  right?" 

.  .  .  A  dripping,  wailing  wood,  a  wet  wind 
whirling  the  few  fluttering  leaves  off  the  trees,  a  girl 
who  rocked  herself  and  moaned  and  called  down 
curses.  And  the  cause  of  all  this !  He  took  the 
memory  by  the  throat,  and  looking  with  steady  eyes 
at  Lady  Arthur,  lied  royally. 

"  If  you  care  to  know  it,  you  are  the  first  woman 
I  have  ever  cared  for !  " 

Her  eyes  drooped  as  if  she  found  his  too  pas- 
sionate. And  yet  as  a  rule  D'Arcy  could  not  look 
any  one  between  the  eyes  for  long,  to  conquer  their 
glance  with  his — not  because  his  own  were  shifty, 
but  because  he  possessed  some  sense  belonging  to 
the  medium,  and  was  easily  magnetized  and  over- 
awed by  personality  and  a  more  coarsely  vital  power. 
It  was  purely  a  question  of  nerves,  but  it  needed  a 
great  spur  to  work  him  up  into  passion  before  he 
could  dominate  a  less  overstrung  nature. 

"  There  is  Captain  Harrington  coming  to  speak 
to  me,"  said  Lady  Arthur  hurriedly.  "  Don't  let 
him  find  you  with  me.  Go ! — good-night.  I  am 
going  to  bed  early." 


Lady  Arthur  went  to  Durban  with  the  boat,  spent 
the  time  there  while  they  took  in  cargo  at  Mada- 
gascar, and  went  home  with  them.  Captain  Har- 
rington held  his  tongue,  and  D'Arcy  contrived  to 
do  his  work  and  to  keep  on  the  thin  edge  of  safety. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  87 

He  would  have  liked  to  have  stood  well  with  his 
Skipper,  and  had  an  uneasy  feeling  that  he  did  not. 
But  he  risked  his  big  stake,  and  had  his  education 
by  a  married  woman  well  begun  by  the  time  they 
reached  Southampton  again. 

"  Good-bye,  D'Arcy ! "  Lady  Arthur  said  when 
they  parted.  "  Don't  quite  forget  me.  I  have  been 
the  first  woman  in  your  life,  but  I  shall  not  be  the 
last ! " 

She  had  not  been  quite  the  first,  but  in  the  sec- 
ond half  of  her  impression  he  concurred. 


CHAPTER  VII 

"  He  that  buys  land,  buys  stones  — 

He  that  buys  flesh,  buys  bones !  " — etc. 
(Inscription  on  a  piece  of  Devon  pottery  in  the  coffee-room 
at  Kelway's.) 

IT  was  a  rule  on  Savernakes'  line  that  promotion 
should  be  worked  through  the  cargo  boats,  so  that 
a  young  Officer  who  started  as  D'Arcy  did — fourth 
Mate  on  such  a  boat  as  the  Queen,  which  was  some 
1 2,000  tons — became  third  Mate  of  one  of  the  cargo 
boats,  then  was,  possibly,  second  of  a  smaller  pas- 
senger Liner,  and  was  handed  backwards  and  for- 
wards from  cargo  to  passenger  boats  until  he  became 
Master.  This  generally  took  place  first  of  a  carrier, 
then  of  a  boat  such  as  the  Signora,  which,  though 
only  4,600  tons,  carried  passengers,  and  from  thence 
he  might  pass  upwards  to  Commodore-Captain  in 
command  of  the  biggest  of  the  fleet.  By  this  means 
the  men  learned  coasting  and  to  work  cargo,  and 
as  Savernakes'  preferred  to  train  their  Officers  and 
keep  them  in  the  service  of  the  Company,  from 
Apprentice  to  Commodore,  it  was  rarely  that  any 
man  in  their  employ  left  them.  From  first  to  last 
his  education  was  ready  for  him  amongst  his  Com- 
pany's own  property ;  there  was  no  branch  of  sea- 
manship that  he  could  not  learn  amongst  those 
great  boats  which  were  called  by  women's  titles, 

88 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  89 

from  crossing  the  yard  in  the  old  Mistress,  to  bring- 
ing the  Queen  safely  up  to  Durban  Bar,  the  which 
she  was  of  course  too  huge  to  cross. 

D'Arcy  Amyas'  career  had  not,  up  to  his  first 
steam  voyage,  been  anything  uncommon.  He  had 
done  three  years'  apprenticeship  instead  of  four, 
being  a  Worcester  boy,  but  he  had  risen  step  by 
step,  and  that  not  rapidly,  from  third  Mate  to  Mate 
on  a  sailing  ship,  and  then  had  gone  back  to  fourth 
Mate  for  the  privilege  of  undertaking  far  less  oner- 
ous duties  and  hard  work  on  a  great  Liner.  But 
from  that  time  his  rise  was  somewhat  phenomenal, 
and  became  a  by-word  in  the  Service.  The  secret 
was  an  open  one,  of  course,  for  the  story  of  D'Arcy's 
"  friend  at  court "  flew.  He  was  envied  and  spite- 
fully spoken  of,  but  he  found  that  to  meet  questions 
with  closed  lips,  rumours  with  closed  ears,  and  to 
thank  chance  for  a  clever  woman's  favour,  were 
likely  to  overcome  all  obstacles  and  bring  him 
speedily  to  his  goal. 

How  it  was  managed  no  man  could  ever  tell — 
certainly  not  the  Directors  of  Savernakes',  who, 
after  all,  must  have  been  the  strings  pulled  by  an 
unseen  hand ;  but  D'Arcy  was  speedily  promoted 
to  third  Officer  of  the  Madam,  a  cargo  carrier 
tramping  out  to  Walfisch  Bay  and  even  up  to  Zan- 
zibar ;  and  a  very  long  voyage  he  found  it  with 
the  various  ports  of  call,  and  the  shifting  of  cargo, 
while  the  winches  groaned  under  the  Kaffirs'  lazy 
manipulation,  and  he  stood  at  his  hatch,  tallying 
hour  after  hour  under  a  burning  sun,  until  the 


90  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

blistered  decks  danced  before  his  eyes.  Only  three 
Officers  were  carried  on  cargo  boats,  and  after  his 
brief  glimpse  of  society  on  the  Queen,  D'Arcy 
found  it  infinitely  dull.  Between  ports  there  was 
little  or  nothing  to  do,  when  it  was  another  fellow's 
watch,  so  the  two  men  off  duty  idled  the  long  hot 
hours  away,  and  longed  for  port,  where  there  was 
sometimes  a  chance  of  getting  into  mischief. 

On  his  second  trip  in  the  Madam  Amyas  fell  in 
with  a  man  who  was  a  great  piquet  player,  and  be- 
ing second  Mate,  they  used  to  retire  to  his  cabin 
during  the  dog  watches  and  gamble  for  lack  of 
other  excitement.  The  long  sunny  decks  stretched 
away  on  either  hand,  and  the  wind  sang  in  the  rig- 
ging, and  the  boat  pushed  steadily  through  the 
green  water,  while  the  two  men  would  sit  engrossed 
over  tiny  slips  of  pasteboard,  making  quaint  com- 
binations of  them  whereby  to  seriously  embarrass 
each  other's  future  for  the  next  few  months  if  pos- 
sible. 

The  second  Mate  was  a  very  much  better  player 
than  D'Arcy,  but  losing  will  teach  a  man  much. 
D'Arcy  lost,  and  this  also  was  a  part  of  his  educa- 
tion. The  other  man  was  known  as  "  Piquet " 
Davis  throughout  the  Service,  and  carte  blanche 
was  his  winning  hand.  This  rarest  of  chances 
seemed  to  come  to  him  by  some  fatality  at  least 
once  during  play,  and  the  consequences  were  ruin- 
ous to  his  adversary,  who,  hot  with  thirty  in  hand, 
saw  ripique  and  pique  coolly  nullified  by  those 
twelve  unpictured  cards.  He  would  start  with  carte 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  91 

blanche,  including  a  tierce  minor,  and  at  least  one 
three ;  quatorze  in  tens  would  follow  as  surely  as  he 
discarded,  and  his  adversary,  whether  elder  or 
younger  hand,  very  seldom  chanced  to  annul  with 
superior  cards.  At  the  end  of  one  long  afternoon's 
play  the  third  Officer  found  himself  ten  pounds 
to  the  bad,  and  realized  that  what  with  past  los- 
ings and  to-day's  ill-luck  he  was  in  deep  water. 

"  You've  about  cleaned  me  out !  "  he  said,  throw- 
ing the  cards  on  to  the  improvised  table  and  slip- 
ping his  hand  uneasily  into  his  empty  pockets. 

"  Sorry,  old  man  !  Jove  !  but  that  was  a  run  of 
luck  though  !  I  never  saw  the  cards  fall  so.  Look 
here  !  "  He  picked  up  his  favourites  with  the  in- 
stinct of  the  true  gambler  who  loves  to  reconsider 
the  ways  of  chance  however  they  fall.  "  I  started 
with  a  quart  and  three  aces,  and  I  discarded  a  queen 
and  four  small  'uns.  Then  I  took  in  a  fourth  ace 
and  got  a  quint  major,  while  you  had  only  a  minor. 
I  thought  you'd  got  the  point  anyhow,  and  though 
I  might  have  cards  I  never  looked  for  capot." 

D'Arcy  turned  out  of  the  cabin  with  a  sick  cer- 
tainty that  his  own  luck  would  force  him  to  do  what 
he  had  avoided  so  far — write  home  for  money.  He 
knew  what  that  would  mean,  the  retrenchment  on 
an  already  slender  income,  and  the  harass  and 
worry  for  his  step-mother  and  sister.  He  was 
ashamed  of  his  own  carelessness  and  self-indulgence. 
But  what  was  a  man  to  do  ?  The  enforced  monot- 
ony and  inactivity  were  answerable  for  it,  not  he. 
Yet  it  seemed  to  him  for  one,  horror-struck  moment 


92  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

that  he  was  always  sinking  a  little  lower  than  the 
standard  which  his  father,  for  instance,  would  have 
set.  It  was  very  seldom  that  he  looked  at  his  life 
from  an  outsider's  point  of  view — as  a  rule  he  was 
content  to  live  it ;  but  that  night  as  he  walked  up 
and  down  the  bridge,  under  the  vast  spaces  of  the 
star-strewn  sky,  he  analyzed  himself  somewhat  cu- 
riously, and  winced  when  he  came  to  this  last  indis- 
cretion. He  knew  just  where  Milly  and  Mrs. 
Amyas  would  contrive  and  pinch  in  order  to  let 
him  have  what  help  he  demanded,  and  tortured  him- 
self with  seeing  it  all  in  fancy  as  plainly  as  though 
it  had  absolutely  been  described  to  him.  He  heard 
not  one  word  of  reproach  or  discontent  from  his 
womenkind,  of  course;  they  merely  wrote  asking 
anxiously  when  he  was  coming  to  Trawles ;  but  he 
preferred  to  spend  his  short  time  when  on  shore  at 
Captain  Ronny's,  and  pleaded  the  R.N.R.  drill 
as  a  preventative  to  his  going  to  Devonshire,  for 
he  had  joined  the  Reserve  for  the  sake  of  the  re- 
taining fee  and  being  paid  for  drill. 

After  a  time  the  keen  edge  of  his  remorse  wore 
off,  but  he  learned  to  play  piquet  with  discretion, 
and  lent  a  hand  towards  landing  younger  men  in 
the  same  predicament  as  he  had  been  himself.  He 
was  known  throughout  his  career  as  an  excellent 
hand  at  cards,  and  it  probably  made  a  factor  in  his 
popularity. 

By  the  time  he  had  risen  again  to  be  second  Mate 
—second  Officer  he  called  himself  now — he  had  a 
loss  for  which  he  sincerely  grieved,  though  as  usual 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  93 

in  the  innermost  fibres  of  his  being.  His  step- 
mother died  while  he  was  on  the  other  side  of  the 
world,  and  he  learned  it,  on  coming  back  to  Eng- 
land, with  a  pang  of  remorse  to  think  how  often 
she  had  asked  when  he  was  coming  down  to  see 
them  again,  and  how  he  had  always  pushed  the 
half-hesitating  appeal  on  one  side.  D'Arcy  had 
loved  the  practical,  unimaginative  woman  who  had 
reared  him,  and  she  had  been  a  restraining  influence 
in  his  life  to  an  extent  that  she  would  hardly  have 
credited  herself.  There  were  many  things  that  he 
had  hesitated  to  do  because  of  some  downright 
honest  precept  of  Mrs.  Amyas'  ringing  in  his  mind 
from  childish  days.  He  had  probably  gone  his  own 
way  and  done  the  things  she  would  have  censured, 
eventually,  being  released  from  her  influence  by 
those  thousands  of  miles  of  sea  over  which  he  had 
travelled  away  from  her ;  but  to  D'Arcy  to  hesitate 
was  still  a  sign  of  grace  in  his  nature.  After  Mrs. 
Amyas'  death  he  did  not  even  do  as  much  as  that, 
nor  was  his  hand  stayed  for  any  consideration  but 
himself. 

Her  death  forced  him  to  go  to  Trawles  at  last, 
and  settle  up  affairs  with  Millicent.  His  visit  hap- 
pened in  the  summer,  and  he  thought  of  the  last 
occasion  when  he  went  down,  and  of  the  dripping 
November  woods  and  the  rain-lashed  coast.  Trawles 
was  gay  with  flowers  this  time,  and  the  brawling 
river  reflected  blue  sky  and  sunshine.  There  was  a 
change  in  D'Arcy  too,  though  he  was  unconscious 
of  it.  He  had  grown  broader,  and  filled  out  with 


94  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

the  better  food  and  lighter  work  of  the  cargo  boats. 
His  face  was  harder,  and  yet  less  keen,  the  eyes 
still  narrowed  at  the  corners,  the  under-lip  fallen  a 
little  as  though  his  mouth  had  coarsened — on  the 
whole,  a  better-looking  man  than  he  had  been  six 
or  seven  years  back.  Miliicent  met  him  on  the 
door-step  of  the  old  house,  for  he  had  written  that 
he  was  coming. 

"  How  well  you  look,  D'Arcy ! — you  seem  to 
have  grown  bigger,"  she  said  simply. 

"  I'm  gettin'  older,"  he  replied,  laying  his  hands 
affectionately  on  her  shoulders  and  kissing  her 
round  cheek.  Miliicent  was  a  handsome  woman, 
and  her  likeness  to  her  step-brother  was  most 
marked  at  this  period  of  their  lives. 

"  Poor  mother !  she  would  have  liked  to  have 
seen  you,"  she  said  with  a  sigh. 

D'Arcy  turned  away  without  comment.  The 
thrust  went  home,  unintentional  though  it  was.  He 
felt  too  keenly  to  speak,  as  was  usual  with  him,  and 
his  half  shame  at  his  own  strong  emotions  caused 
him  to  repress  all  outward  evidence.  Miliicent 
thought  him  rather  unfeeling,  but  put  it  down  to 
his  long  absence  and  alienation  from  the  old  life  and 
its  interests. 

"  I  suppose  the  old  place  must  go,"  he  said  regret- 
fully, as  they  were  looking  round  the  rooms.  "  I 
meant  once  never  to  part  with  it,  but  a  rovin'  life 
knocks  the  sentiment  out  of  you.  You  soon  lose 
your  desire  for  an  anchor." 

"  I   don't   like   to   think   of  Drake   House  sold 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  95 

either,  but,  as  you  say,  one  gets  other  ties  and  sur- 
roundings," said  Millicent.  "  If  you  do  not  live 
here,  D'Arcy,  I  do  not  know  who  should." 

"  What  do  you  mean  to  do  yourself  ?  You  must 
not  let  me  forget  you.  I've  grown  selfish  with 
havin'  to  look  out  for  myself." 

"  I — I  am  going  to  be  married !  I  forgot  you 
did  not  know."  And  Millicent  coloured  up  and 
looked  prettier  than  ever. 

"  Why,  my  dear  girl,  why  didn't  you  tell  me  ? 
What  a  piece  of  news  to  keep  back  ! "  Amyas  sat 
down  in  his  father's  old  chair  and  drew  her  on  to 
his  knee,  brotherly  fashion.  Millicent  was  pleased 
to  talk,  and  obviously  happy.  It  was  a  satisfactory 
way  of  disposing  of  the  difficulty  of  her  future, 
too.  She  had  become  engaged  after  her  mother's 
death  to  a  gentleman  farmer,  who  had  lately  pur- 
chased land  in  the  neighbourhood.  He  had  ad- 
mired Millicent  for  some  time,  and  had  been 
kind  to  her  in  her  trouble,  finally  making  her  an 
offer. 

"  I  am  so  glad  you  will  see  him,  D'Arcy,"  said 
the  girl.  "  I  want  you  to  know  each  other." 

"  And  give  my  consent  as  nearest  male  rela- 
tive? Well,  Milly,  I'm  heartily  glad,  old  girl! 
Got  any  more  surprisin'  news  for  me  ?  Where's 
Jack?" 

"  Jack  is  in  London  still — he  has  just  taken  his 
F.R.C.S.  What  do  you  think  he  wants  to  do  ?" 

"  Get  a  practice,  I  should  think." 

"  No  ;  try  being  a  doctor  on  one  of  the  Lines  ! 


96  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

It  is  all  you  again,  D' Arcy.  Jack  always  wanted  to 
follow  your  lead,  he  admires  you  so.  He  thinks 
there  is  no  one  else  like  you.  I  am  not  quite  sure 
we  have  not  all  hero-worshipped  a  little ! "  she 
added,  with  a  keen  flash  of  recognition  as  she 
looked  back  through  the  past  years  and  saw  their 
universal  attitude. 

"  Well,  it's  very  good  of  you  if  you  have,  and 
equally  foolish.  I'm  not  sure  Jack's  wise.  A 
taste  of  the  sea  is  apt  to  unfit  you  for  settlin'  down 
in  a  practice,  I  should  say.  And  he  won't  get  the 
chance  of  havin'  his  fancy  knocked  out  of  him  with 
hard  work  as  I  did." 

"  Was  it  very  rough,  D'Arcy?  You  never  com- 
plained." 

"  I  wasn't  such  a  fool,  for  I  meant  to  go  on. 
Yes,  it  was  rough,  Milly.  You  never  tried  to  live 
on  duff  and  salt  pork  for  weeks  on  end,  did  you  ?  " 

She  shivered  delicately.  "  You  poor  boy  !  Why 
is  the  food  so  bad  ?  " 

"  Deuce  knows,  and  the  shipowners !  There's  no 
real  necessity,  as  I'm  beginnin'  to  see.  But  that 
and  other  physical  hard  knocks  keep  a  good  many 
Englishmen  out  of  our  Service,  and  bring  in  the 
foreigners.  We've  only  two  Scotchmen  and  a  York- 
shireman  on  the  Madam  now — the  rest  of  the  crew 
are  pickin's  from  Europe  haphazard.  I  hope  we 
shan't  have  war  with  any  of  their  nations,  that's 
all.  We  can't  afford  it ! " 

"  Is  your  boat  the  Madam,  D'Arcy  ?  " 

"  Yes ;  I'm  leavin'  her.     Coin'  to  be  Mate  next 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  97 

voyage  on  the  Empress.  She's  a  passenger  boat, 
5,000  tons." 

"  How  quickly  you  get  your  promotion,  D'Arcy  ! 
It  seems  to  me  only  the  other  day  that  you  were 
going  as  fourth  Officer  on  that  big  boat — the  Queen, 
I  think  it  was.  Don't  you  remember  coming  down 
to  tell  us  ?  It  was  the  last  time  you  were  here." 

"  Yes."  He  put  her  gently  away  from  him,  and 
rising,  strolled  over  to  the  window  and  stood  staring 
out  across  the  blue  sea,  with  his  hands  in  his  pock- 
ets. His  promotion  was  rapid,  and  he  knew  its 
source,  and  had  always  regarded  it  with  unruffled 
satisfaction.  Other  men  might  talk,  and  he  himself 
might  affect  ignorance,  but  he  laid  his  good  fortune 
secretly  to  the  account  of  Lady  Arthur  Hyde, 
though  he  had  never  set  eyes  on  her  since  that  fate- 
ful voyage  in  the  Queen.  He  thought,  with  some 
complaisance,  that  women  were  curiously  faithful  to 
a  sentiment,  and  out  there  in  his  broader  life  across 
the  seas  he  felt  it  a  matter  for  self-congratulation. 
But  in  Trawles  the  horizon  was  narrower.  As  soon 
as  he  got  into  that  cup  in  the  red  hills,  with  the  sea 
only  touching  its  feet,  his  impressionable  side  was 
affected.  He  positively  did  not  care  to  think  of  the 
source  of  his  advancement,  and  he  realized  how  im- 
possible it  would  be  for  Millicent  to  even  dream  of  it. 

Standing  there  at  the  window,  where  as  a  boy  he 
had  dreamed  out  across  the  sea  so  many,  many 
times,  something  else  came  back  to  him  also — the 
memory  of  what  happened  before  that  voyage  in 
the  Queen,  the  land-ties  for  ever  broken. 


98  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"What's  become  of  the  Culvertons?"  he  said 
briefly. 

"  Oh  !  Nell  is  still  in  Trawles,  keeping  house  for 
her  father." 

"  He  didn't  leave  then  ?  " 

"  No ;  where  was  he  to  go  ?  They  still  drag  on 
in  the  same  fashion.  It  makes  me  miserable  to 
see  it." 

"  And— the  others  ?  " 

"  Bertie  is  dead ! "  said  Millicent,  with  a  little 
shocked  haste.  She  felt  as  if  D'Arcy  were  indecent 
in  making  these  inquiries.  "  He  made  himself  ill 
with  the  life  he  led — the  doctors  said  he  was  '  rotten 
with  drink  '  !  And  he  caught  a  low  fever  two  years 
ago  and  died.  Nell  nursed  him  at  the  last." 

"  Nell — always  Nell !  She  seems  the  good  angel 
of  the  family." 

"  She  is  more  like  a  brownie  or  an  elf.  She  has 
never  altered.  I  do  not  understand  her ! "  said 
Millicent,  shutting  her  lips  firmly  as  if  to  dismiss  the 
subject. 

D'Arcy  waited.  His  back  asked  the  question  his 
lips  did  not,  as  plainly  as  if  he  had  spoken.  He 
kept  his  face  turned  to  the  sea,  and  yet  Milly  knew 
he  was  waiting,  and  that  she  must  answer. 

"  Mr.  Dalkeith  married  her  !  "  she  said  abruptly. 
"  They  live  about  twenty  miles  away.  He  got 
another  living." 

D'Arcy  turned  round  from  the  window.  "  I 
should  think  that  ought  to  improve  Culverton's  po- 
sition ! "  he  remarked,  picking  up  his  cap. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  99 

"  It  didn't  much.  The  new  vicar  is  a  slave-driver, 
and  spares  neither  himself  nor  his  curate.  I  saw 
her  one  day  " — the  irrelevant  pronoun  explained 
itself — "  she  was  driving.  She  looks  very  fragile 
and — and  unhappy.  Are  you  going  out,  D' Arcy  ?  " 

"  Only  for  a  stroll.     I  shall  be  in  for  supper." 

He  went  up  by  the  old  familiar  way  through 
Trawles,  pausing  to  look  at  the  dripping  water-mill 
and  the  forge,  and  catch  a  gossiping  word  of  real 
rich  Devon  between  two  old  cronies  at  the  church- 
yard gate.  And  then  he  turned  out  into  the  road 
that  runs  to  Exeter,  the  very  spot  where  they  used 
to  play  quick-catch,  and  there,  coming  towards  him, 
was  a  little  brown  figure  that  he  knew  as  he  had 
known  it  for  many  years. 

"  Nell ! "  he  said,  as  he  had  said  it  through  the 
rain. 

"  D'Arcy "  She  hesitated,  for  he  had 

changed  if  she  had  not.  "  It  is  D'Arcy  Amyas  ?  " 

"  Yes.     Have  you  forgotten  me  ?  " 

"  No  !  "  She  peered  at  him  closer.  "  But  you 
have  altered.  You  are  not  such  a  good  fellow  as  I 
thought  you  would  be,  D'Arcy  !  " 

"  One  of  your  elfin  speeches,  Nell !  Do  they 
teach  you  to  read  character  in  Fairy-land  ?  " 

"  No — they  teach  that  lesson  better  in  the  real 
world,  and  it's  a  hard  school.  Where  did  you  get 
that  new  face,  D'Arcy  ?  " 

"  Where  I  got  the  heart  behind  it,  Nell — in  your 
« hard  school ' ! " 

She  stood  looking  up  at  him  with  her  brown 


ioo  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

eyes — fairy  eyes  that  had  always  seemed  to  him  too 
little  human  to  be  attractive.  "  I'm  sorry ! "  she 
said  abruptly.  "  I  told  you  you  would  find  it  a  hard 
place.  You  have  done  that,  D' Arcy  !  " 

"  I've  got  to  live  in  it  anyway.  May  I  walk  with 
you,  Nell  ?  Are  you  goin'  my  way  ?  " 

"  I  hope  not ! "  she  said,  looking  into  his  face 
still  more  keenly.  "  I  think  it  is  all  downhill, 
D'Arcy ! " 

He  simply  laughed,  and  turned  to  stroll  along  by 
her  side.  She  had  an  errand  in  Trawles,  and  they 
went  together,  talking  of  old  days  and  mutual  in- 
terests, and  neither  of  them  anything  but  amused  at 
the  glances  the  townspeople  threw  at  them. 

"  Miss  Nell's  takin'  a  la-ad  to  walk  wi'  her,  and 
'tis  none  o'u'r  sune  neither  !  "  was  the  general  com- 
ment. 

D'Arcy  looked  a  stranger  to  his  native  place. 
His  tanned  face  and  thick  fair  hair  showing  beneath 
the  line  of  his  cap  might  have  belonged  to  an  alien. 
His  eyes  wrinkled  at  the  corners  more  than  ever  as 
he  talked,  for  Nell  made  him  laugh.  Her  comments 
on  her  own  narrow  sphere  of  life  were  as  crisply  bit- 
ter as  endive. 

"  Drake  House  is  goin'  to  the  hammer  ! "  he  said, 
his  face  clouding  a  moment  when  they  paused  to 
say  good-bye  at  the  end  of  the  street. 

"  It  seems  a  pity — but  things  never  last — not  even 
the  life  that  you  think  you  will  live  just  the  same  all 
your  days.  Even  I  shall  change  some  time,  I  sup- 
pose. We  shall  all  come  to  the  hammer  at  last ! " 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  101 

"  Yes.  It's  the  last  wrench — it  cuts  me  off  from 
Travvles.  I  shan't  come  here  any  more,  I  expect." 

"  You've  outgrown  it !  " 

"  Have  I  ?  I  used  to  think  I  should  come  back 
here — and  die.  I  hope  not  though.  I'd  rather  die 
in  the  life  I've  chosen,  disillusioned  though  I  am — 
full  of  temptations  though  it  is." 

"  What  is  your  special  temptation  ? "  said  Nell, 
staring  at  him  between  the  eyes,  as  if  she  could  read 
it  written  there. 

"  Shall  I  tell  you  ?     I  never  lie  to  you,  Nell ! " 

"  It  does  not  matter  whether  you  tell  or  not.  I 
shall  not  betray  confidence  if  you  choose  to,  though. 
I  am  not  in  your  life,  so  there  is  no  need  to  hesitate. 
What  is  it?" 

"  Women ! "  he  said  curtly,  and  turned  and  left 
her  with  a  brief  lift  of  his  cap. 

"  Good-bye ! "  she  called  after  him,  and  the  word 
had  something  unearthly  in  it  to  his  ears,  as  though 
it  rang  from  another  world — Nell's  fairy  world  which 
set  her  apart  from  the  rest  of  her  sex.  D'Arcy  did 
not  include  her  in  that  suggestive  title  to  his  beset- 
ting sin.  She  was  not  a  thing  of  flesh  and  blood  to 
his  mind. 

But  that  was  the  last  he  saw  of  Trawles.  He 
turned  his  back  on  the  little  Devonshire  fishing  vil- 
lage a  few  days  later,  and  went  back  to  London. 
It  went  to  sleep  in  his  memory  as  it  lay  asleep  in 
the  sunshine — the  ring  of  the  trawling  boats  busy 
at  its  foot  in  the  bay — and  he  did  not  find  cause  to 
recall  it  for  many  a  long  day. 


102  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

His  new  Captain  of  the  Empress  was  a  man  whose 
prototype  is  more  general  in  theory  than  in  fact  in 
the  Merchant  Service.  But  he  does  sometimes  ex- 
ist, and  Captain  Cross  was  a  specimen — a  big  bearded 
man,  with  a  rich  voice,  full-throated  and  deep  as  a 
bell — a  man  who  rolled  his  orders  down  the  ship 
(and  they  were  never  otherwise  than  answered  on 
the  instant)  and  made  love  to  any  woman  who 
would  let  him  with  the  same  chest  notes  softened  to 
a  whisper.  He  was  a  martinet  to  his  men,  a  rattling 
good  fellow  to  his  male  passengers,  and  a  tempter 
to  anything  feminine  whose  virtue  was  assailable. 
He  is  not  to  be  blamed,  for  his  double  on  shore  may 
have  less  opportunity  but  is  no  less  willing.  He 
was  simply  a  type  which  fulfils  its  destiny,  and  the 
sphere  of  life  in  which  he  found  himself  happened 
to  be  propitious  to  his  inclinations.  The  only  per- 
son to  whom  Captain  Cross  presented  an  appearance 
of  washed-out  meekness  was  his  wife.  He  was 
very  much  married  to  a  querulous  woman  who  sus- 
pected the  gallantries  she  could  not  prove,  and  made 
him  pay  during  the  few  weeks  on  shore  for  his  lib- 
erty of  the  seas. 

D'Arcy  Amyas  found  a  kindred  spirit  in  his  new 
Master.  The  other  Officers  held  their  tongues,  and 
were  as  loyal  to  their  Skipper  as  only  their  class  can 
be ;  but  D'Arcy  alone  felt  any  sympathy  with  him. 
Saving  only  his  folly  in  having  married — Captain 
Ronny's  homilies  returned  in  full  force  to  his  mind 
here — Amyas  found  nothing  but  to  admire  in  the 
burly  Don  Juan  whose  seamanship  was  unas- 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  103 

sailable,  and  who  took  his  boat  back  and  forth 
with  the  skill  and  cunning  of  many  years'  hard 
experience. 

"  See  here,  Amyas,  never  too  close  to  Ushant ! " 
he  said,  giving  his  counsel  to  the  Mate  for  the  sake 
of  their  growing  liking  one  for  the  other.  "  A  mile 
or  so  nearer  Lisbon  than  the  track  chart — and  once 
you've  left  Cape  Verde  no  trouble  till  you  round  the 
Cape  itself.  There's  a  nasty  bit  of  shore  up  the 
coast — Burke  ran  his  boat  on  the  rocks  there,  and 
lost  his  certificate.  It's  a  tradition  on  our  Line  that 
it's  smart  to  hug  Port  Alfred — don't  you  ever  do  it ! 
You've  got  a  thousand  lives  or  so  underneath  you 
when  you're  on  the  bridge,  and  that's  enough  to 
shake  your  nerve  only  to  remember." 

"  They're  not  fond  enough  of  soundin's  nowa- 
days ! "  Amyas  remarked,  taking  the  cigar  from  his 
thickening  lips.  "  Comin'  up  Channel  in  the  Sig- 
nora  we  hardly  sounded  once." 

"  That's  Rea  all  over  !  I  wonder  you  didn't  find 
yourselves  hung  up  on  the  Eddystone  !  " 

"  Thought  we  had  once.  There  was  a  fog,  and 
we  must  have  missed  it  by  a  fluke." 

"  Rea's  a  half-breed — by  Wales  out  of  Germany. 
There  ought  to  be  a  tax  on  foreigners." 

"  We  should  lose  half  the  Service  !  Look  here — 
nine  men  out  of  ten  won't  stand  the  siftin'  of  the 
Mercantile  Marine.  Even  the  foreigners  train  in 
our  boats,  learn  the  language,  and  then — go  to 
America  !  Who  wonders  ?  The  Yankees  are  slavers, 
but  their  ships  are  all  well  found.  They  feed  you 


104  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

so  that  you  can  work.  I'd  have  gone  myself  if  I 
had  been  an  A.B." 

"  They'll  never  reform  it  until  the  next  naval  war. 
The  public  don't  care  and  don't  know,  and  in  the 
nature  of  things  we've  no  trade  union — but  what  a 
smash  there  will  be  if  we  ever  do  go  to  war  with 
France  or  Russia  !  We  can't  possibly  keep  up  the 
food  supply.  We  should  want  the  Navy  to  act  as 
convoy,  and  the  Navy  would  want  us  to  draw  on  as 
a  reserve.  We  can't  fight  and  feed  England  too." 

Both  men  smoked  in  silence  for  a  minute.  From 
the  foe's 'le  came  a  burst  of  melody,  for  the  third- 
class  passengers  were  naving  a  "  sing-song  " — 

"  Oh,  Flo  !  what  a  change,  you  know  ! 

When  she  left  the  village  she  was  shy " 

"  It's  a  precious  long  time  since  most  girls  '  left 
the  village '  nowadays ! "  said  Cross,  laughing 
softly.  "  Remember  that  girl  coming  back  from 
Madagascar  last  trip,  Amyas  ?  " 

"  Yes.     That  was  your  affair,  sir,  not  mine !  " 

"  It  strikes  me  it  was  right  enough  when  it  came 
to  tallying ! "  laughed  Cross,  shaking  silently  with 
his  own  memories.  Then  he  made  a  joke  unrecord- 
able,  and  all  but  inexplicable  to  laity ;  but  Amyas 
appreciated  its  humour,  and  found  its  coarse  quality 
only  a  sauce  to  whet  his  appetite. 

It  was  not  often  that  the  Captain  and  the  Mate 
were  both  to  be  found  smoking  and  talking  in  the 
former's  cabin.  They  were  both  popular  among 
the  passengers,  and  held  their  diploma  for  being 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  105 

ladies'  men,  and  the  straiter-laced  among  their  ship- 
load said  that  they  played  into  each  other's  hands. 
But  so  long  as  the  Empress  was  a  favourite  boat  on 
the  Line  there  was  not  much  likelihood  of  censure 
from  headquarters.  D'Arcy  stayed  with  the  boat 
and  her  Captain  for  a  longer  period  than  was  usual 
with  him  on  one  ship,  for  the  simple  reason  that  he 
went  for  his  year's  work  with  the  Navy  while  still 
under  Captain  Cross.  Savernakes  had  no  objection 
to  giving  their  men  leave  for  this  object ;  association 
with  the  Service  gave  them  a  certain  Naval  smart- 
ness, lacking  in  Merchant  Service  Officers  as  a  rule, 
and  the  Company  liked  their  boats  to  be  com- 
manded by  gentlemen.  D'Arcy,  always  quick  to 
imitate  if  he  did  not  assimilate,  came  out  of  his 
year's  training  a  Naval  man  to  all  surface  intents 
and  purposes.  He  went  back  to  the  Empress  by 
chance  of  her  first  Mate's  removal,  and  stayed  with 
her  until  an  unexpected  death  eased  promotion  ; 
Cross  went  to  the  Queen  as  Commodore,  and 
D'Arcy  Amyas  was  given  the  Duchess,  the  smallest 
of  the  passenger  boats,  and  found  that  at  five-and- 
thirty  he  had  touched  the  goal  of  his  ambition,  and 
though  he  was  legally  Master,  was  known  to  all 
men  as  Captain  Amyas. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

"  Yet  he  hoped  to  purchase  glory, 

Hoped  to  make  the  name 
Of  his  vessel  great  in  story 
Wheresoe'er  he  came. 

"  So  they  passed  by  capes  and  islands, 

Many  a  harbour-mouth, 
Sailing  under  palmy  highlands 
Far  within  the  South." 

ALFRED  TENNYSON 

"  MAY  I  come  in,  Captain  ?  " 

"  You  may — and  draw  the  curtain  after  you,  Mrs. 
Burt." 

The  woman  who  entered  the  lamplit  little  space, 
which  was  cosy  sitting-room,  suggestive  bedroom, 
and  general  store-cupboard  combined,  was  still  so 
much  of  a  girl  that  the  public,  who  knew  her  as 
Anstice  Le  Croix,  considered  her  as  a  rising  actress 
and  likely  to  make  her  mark  "  when  she  was  a  little 
older."  She  was  not  inclined  to  depreciate  her 
youth,  and  seemed  thriftily  inclined  to  laugh  while 
life  was  still  in  its  spring,  for  her  ripe  lips  were  gen- 
erally on  the  verge  of  a  smile  if  one  had  not  actually 
broken  across  her  sensitive,  emotional  face.  She 
came  across  the  cabin  on  tiptoe,  her  eyes  dancing, 
as  though  in  mock  awe,  and  leaned  over  the  Cap- 
tain's shoulder  as  he  sat  at  his  writing-table,  some 
subtle  scent  from  her  hair  and  bosom  making  itself 
evident  to  his  senses. 

106 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  107 

"  What  are  you  doing  ?  "  she  said  curiously,  look- 
ing at  the  sheet  of  note-paper  before  him  and  the 
wet  pen  in  his  hand. 

"  I  began  writin'  some  letters,  forgot  all  about 
them,  and  took  to  drawin'  you ! "  he  said  quietly. 

"  How  clever  !  "  She  reached  over  his  shoulder 
and  took  the  pen-and-ink  sketch,  which  certainly 
showed  talent.  It  was  an  outline  of  her  head  and 
bust,  not  cut  off  at  the  shoulders  as  head  studies 
usually  are,  but  emphasizing  in  the  plain  curves  of 
her  figure  a  certain  sensuous  quality  about  her. 

It  is  possible  that  Mrs.  Burt  recognized  this  fact, 
for  she  drew  her  brows  together  over  her  laughing 
eyes,  and  brought  her  hand  down  against  the  side 
of  his  head.  And  if  ever  a  box  on  the  ear  were  as 
dainty  a  caress  as  a  kiss,  that  one  was  so. 

"  How  horrid  of  you  !  "  she  said.  "  You  are  a 
hateful  person." 

She  glanced  to  right  and  left, — at  the  safely- 
guarded  port-holes  and  the  draped  doorway — lis- 
tened, clasped  her  hands  lightly  under  his  chin,  and 
bending  over  him,  kissed  him  honestly  on  the  lips. 

"  As  recognition  of  your  talent !  "  she  said,  throw- 
ing herself  into  the  armchair  at  his  side.  "  Why 
do  you  draw  me  as  a  courtesan  ?  How  well  you 
think  you  know  me  !  " 

"  I  didn't  draw  you  as  a Why  use  an  ugly 

word  ?  "  He  leaned  back  and  looked  at  her  with 
blue  eyes  which  narrowed  at  the  corners.  "All 
women  are  courtesans,  if  you  will  have  it  so.  It  is 
a  natural  instinct." 


io8  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  All  women  are  courtesans — to  me  !  "  she  cor- 
rected, with  lifted  brows.  "  Did  I  not  say  you  were 
horrid  ?  " 

She  closed  her  full  lips  musingly,  and  bent  her 
eyes  upon  him.  "  How  long  is  it  since  we  found 
out  that  we  had  a  mutual  affinity  ?  "  she  asked  ab- 
ruptly. 

"  Two  days,  since  you  began  to  be  kind  to  me, 
isn't  it?  I  had  discovered  the  attraction — on  my 
side  at  least — before ! " 

"  And  two  days  and  a  half  since  we  left  Durban. 
Half  a  day  thrown  in,  during  which  I  had  time  to 
make  discoveries.  Captain  Amyas,  may  I  speak  to 
you  with  the  impertinence  of  a  friend  ?  " 

"  You  may  speak  to  me  anyhow,  save  as  Captain 
Amyas  !  "  he  answered,  making  a  few  idle  strokes 
on  the  blotting-paper.  Then  suddenly  he  flung 
away  his  pen,  and  pushed  his  chair  back,  and  bent 
over  her. 

"  Ah !  Anstice,  why  are  we  wastin'  precious 
time  ? "  he  said.  "  You  know  you  did  not  come 
here  for  that !  " 

She  yielded  her  mouth  to  his  for  a  moment,  then 
put  her  slender  hands  on  his  breast  and  pushed  him 
back  from  her. 

"  No  more — for  I  have  really  something  to  say," 
she  said.  "  Something  serious.  Ah,  you  laugh  at 
that  in  connection  with  me ;  but  I  have  been  madly 
in  love  for  two  days  remember — what  should  make 
me  serious,  if  not  that  ?  " 

"  I  will  listen  then."     He  sat  down  again  in  his 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  109 

chair,  but  turned  his  face  to  her,  and  leaning  for- 
ward, took  her  hands  in  his  and  fondled  them. 
"  Now  tell  me,"  he  said,  the  soft  hoarse  tone  more 
suggestive  of  accent,  as  always  happened  when  his 
passions  rose. 

"  I  am  going  to  be  impertinent — I  told  you  so !  " 
Her  fingers  twined  round  his.  "  I  am  going  to 
give  you  good  advice.  My  friend,  when  you  came 
on  board  at  Durban  you  had  had  quite  enough  to 
drink !  " 

Her  eyes  had  grown  grave,  but  their  glance  was 
soft  and  pleading.  Amyas  always  listened  to 
women — he  had  found  it  pay.  And  this  woman 
was  in  earnest.  He  nodded.  "  Yes — I  had  been 
sayin'  a  good  many  farewells.  I  was  not  drunk 
though." 

"  I  know  you  were  not.  It  would  not  have  mat- 
tered very  much  if  you  had  been,  leaving  harbour, 
so  long  as  you  could  take  your  boat  out  safely — 
Durban  Bar  is  no  joking  matter !  But  as  I  say, 
that  may  pass.  What  I  want  to  know  is,  why  you 
run  risks  now  ?  " 

"How?" 

"  You  drink  too  much.  Oh,  I  know  that  all  the 
Officers  on  board  are  abstinent  at  table,  but  the 
passengers  wish  to  treat  you,  and  you  are  always 
drinking  with  one  and  another.  It  is  a  bad  plan." 

He  considered  a  moment,  looking  away  from  her. 
A  direct  gaze  confused  him  and  muddled  his 
thoughts,  unless  he  were  so  fiercely  full  of  passion 
that  nothing  could  stand  against  it. 


I  io  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  It  is  the  law  of  the  Line,"  he  said  at  last. 
"  You  don't  understand  our  boats  perhaps,  but  they 
must  be  popular  to  pay.  The  man  who  attracts  the 
most  passengers  stands  the  best  chance  with  the 
firm.  Do  you  see  ?  Since  I  had  the  Duchess  she 
has  not  had  a  dozen  cabins  empty,  outward  or 
homeward." 

"  I  see."  She  looked  thoughtful,  her  eyes  dilat- 
ing as  they  rested  on  him,  her  restless  fingers  still 
twining  round  his.  "  It  is  a  temptation,  and  yet  I 
think  you  are  wrong.  Make  yourself  agreeable  in 
some  other  way,  or  shift  your  drinks  skilfully,  if 
you  really  must  take  them,  so  that  your  brain  shall 
always  be  clear.  You  want  your  wits  about  you  to 
rise,  as  well  as  to  be  popular.  If  you  were  not 
quite  all  there — not  quite  yourself — terrible  things 
might  happen,  and  even  if  there  were  no  real  dan- 
ger it  might  mean  ruin  for  you,  reported  to  your 
Owners." 

He  sat  silent  for  a  moment,  thinking.  The  knit 
between  his  brows  was  a  deep  furrow,  and  Anstice 
watched  it,  wondering  at  his  control  of  his  temper. 
She  might  well  have  vexed  him,  but  he  showed  no  sign 
of  impatience  with  her  when  he  glanced  at  her  at  last. 

"  You  may  be  right.  Clever  women  generally 
are.  You  have  thought  this  out." 

"  I  should  not  have  spoken  if  I  had  not  liked  you 
so  well ! " 

"  I  know.  I  owe  all  my  success  in  life  to  women. 
They  have  made  me  what  I  am.  I  shall  take  your 
words  to  heart." 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  in 

Her  gravity  vanished.  She  sprang  up  impul- 
sively and  held  out  her  arms  to  him,  her  face  a 
rainbow  of  smiles  and  emotion. 

"  You  darling  fellow  !  You  have  the  wit  of  one 
man  in  a  thousand,  and  the  intuition  too.  Very 
few  of  your  sex  recognize  that  a  woman  is  trying 
to  help  them  when  she  speaks  too  straightly  to  be 
pleasant.  U-m-m-m !  "  (This  was  murmured  into 
D'Arcy's  fair  beard.)  "  Let  me  come  on  your 
knee !  " 

He  laughed,  and  shifted  himself  into  the  arm- 
chair, giving  her  the  position  she  suggested.  "  I 
am  sure  I  hope  my  husband  will  not  be  prowling 
round  !  I  left  him  in  a  fine  temper,"  said  Anstice, 
laughing.  " '  Where  are  you  going,  Anstice  ?  '  he 
said.  '  To  the  library  for  a  book ! '  I  answered. 
See  !  here  it  is — Romola — as  if  I  should  read  Ro- 
mola !  Then  I  walked  straight  through  the  deck- 
house, and  down  the  port  side  of  the  deck,  and 
came  in  here  !  " 

"  And  who  saw  you  come  in  ?  " 

"  Two  stewards  and  the  Doctor.  They  will  not 
peach.  That  is  fortunate,  as  they  say  that  a 
woman's  reputation  is  gone  so  soon  as  she  enters 
your  cabin  and  the  curtain  falls  behind  her !  " 

"  And  where  then  is  your  own  ?  " 

"  On  the  other  side  of  the  curtain,  I  presume  ! 
I  left  it  on  the  deck  to  put  on  again  when  I  came 
out — I  might  be  cold  after  my  present  quarters !  " 
She  cuddled  down  into  his  arms  and  laid  her  face 
against  his  bearded  one. 


112  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  Isn't  it  rather  a  pity  to  suffer  for  sins  uncom- 
mitted ?  "  he  whispered. 

"  No,  I  draw  the  line  there  !  I  told  you  so  from 
the  first.  People  may  say  what  they  like,  but  I  am 
a  good  wife." 

"  You  will  never  get  the  credit  of  it — you  may 
just  as  well  be  hanged  for  a  sheep  as  a  lamb ! " 

She  sighed  a  little.  "  Don't  tempt  me.  You 
know  I  have  grown  foolishly  fond  of  you,  and  who 
would  care  for  the  little  thin  red  man  who  calls  him- 
self my  husband  ?  He  always  puts  me  in  mind  of 
a  dried  herring  !  " 

"  And  to  whom  you  are  yet  a  good  wife !  " 

"  No,  I  am  not,  and  you  know  it !  "  she  flashed 
out.  "  Sitting  on  your  knee — lying  in  your  arms — 
allowing  you  every  liberty  that  a  fast  man  can  take  ! 
No  woman  is  good  who  does  as  I  do,  though  she 
keep  herself  clean  from  one  essential  thing.  I  won- 
der why  women  love  you,  mon  capitaine?  For 
you  do  not  understand  love.  To  you  it  is  merely 
a  passion — a  coarse  thing,  which  degrades  itself  and 
the  woman  whom  you  honour  with  your  prefer- 
ence— Captain  Amyas'  preference  !  "  She  stopped 
breathless,  looked  in  his  stormy  face,  and  one  of  her 
swift  changes  came  over  her.  "  It  is  no  matter  ;  I 
love  you — for  the  moment !  "  she  said. 

"  Do  as  I  ask  then — hush  !  some  one  comin'." 

The  tap  at  the  door  found  Captain  Amyas  sitting 
at  the  table,  making  rough  drafts  for  navigation 
while  he  chatted  amicably  with  Mrs.  Burt,  who, 
with  inimitable  sang-froid,  was  smoking  a  cigarette 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  113 

while  she  leaned  back  in  his  easy-chair.  The  in- 
truder was  the  chief  Officer,  who  entered  cap  in 
hand  at  sight  of  the  lady. 

"  Can  I  speak  to  you,  sir  ?  " 

"  What  is  it,  Guinness  ?     Don't  go,  Mrs.  Burt  ! " 

"  I  must — it  is  so  late.  Good-night,  Mr.  Guin- 
ness !  Good-night,  Captain  !  " 

Amyas  rose,  and  raised  the  opposite  curtain  for 
her.  She  passed  out  into  the  warm  dark  night, 
with  an  upward  glance  into  his  face.  There  was 
plenty  of  meaning,  and  of  question,  there,  but  she 
shook  her  head  slightly  and  walked  off  down  the 
deck. 

Amyas  returned  to  the  table.  "  Now,  Guin- 
ness ?  "  he  said. 

"  The  discontent  among  the  men,  sir  ! " 

"Well?" 

"  It  is  growing." 

"  Not  died  out  yet,  hasn't  it  ?  "  D'Arcy  Amyas 
pulled  himself  together  as  he  sat  quietly  making 
his  navigation  charts.  "  It  is  our  own  men,  of 
course?  " 

"  Yes ;  the  foreigners  are  civil  and  obliging 
enough,"  said  Guinness  bitterly. 

"  Ah !  .  .  .  Can  you  knock  a  man  down, 
Guinness  ?  " 

The  Captain  looked,  perhaps  a  little  slightingly,  at 
the  Mate's  small  figure.  Joe  Guinness  was  a  good 
little  fellow — a  'Straight-living,  unimaginative  man, 
who  might  have  stood  for  Bernard  Savernake's  old 
type  of  the  best  Merchantman.  He  knew  his  pro- 


II4  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

fession  thoroughly,  and  had  grown  to  dislike  it  al- 
most as  much.  He  had  risen  by  dogged  persist- 
ence, for  he  was  slow  by  nature,  and  being  also 
honest  he  very  much  disapproved  of  the  reputation 
of  the  man  above  him,  which  disapproval,  albeit 
never  breathed  to  a  living  soul,  made  itself  ever 
conscious  to  Amyas'  flexible  mind.  He  did  not 
essentially  like  the  Mate,  and  his  question  was  the 
more  subtle  for  this  reason. 

"  I  have  done  so  before  now,"  said  Guinness  stiffly. 

"  You  had  better  do  it  again  then,  if  you  come 
in  contact  with  any  more  discontent.  It  sometimes 
answers.  Don't  drag  me  into  it  if  it  can  be  helped. 
I  don't  want  to  make  too  much  of  it." 

The  Captain  returned  to  his  drawing  and  the 
Mate  retired.  If  Amyas  had  not  been  so  perfectly 
cool  Guinness  might  have  been  very  much  more 
worried,  but  there  is  after  all  something  reassuring 
in  a  person  who  cannot  or  will  not  even  take  danger 
into  his  calculations.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Amyas 
was  thinking  more  of  Mrs.  Burt's  advice  than  of  the 
disaffection  among  the  men.  The  latter  was  mainly 
due  to  the  extra  service  imposed  upon  them  by  the 
consideration  given  to  the  passengers  on  Saver- 
nakes'  boats.  Decks  were  scrubbed  when  the 
passengers  had  left  the  deck  and  gone  to  their 
cabins — not  in  regular  routine  after  the  morning 
watch  was  called  at  5  A.  M.,  because  the  noise  of  the 
men  at  work  would  disturb  the  slumbers  of  people 
whose  cabins  were  on  or  immediately  under  the 
promenade  deck.  This  irregularity  was  trying  for 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  115 

the  crew,  whose  work,  however,  Amyas  regarded 
as  mere  child's  play  compared  with  his  own  knowl- 
edge of  what  it  was  in  sailing  vessels.  There  was 
a  spirit  of  anarchy  among  the  men  which  he  had 
not  traced  to  its  root,  but  the  trouble  was  one  which 
would  have  expounded  his  own  theories.  Amyas 
was  a  man  who  took  his  profession  seriously,  in 
spite  of  those  lighter  passages  which  were  gaining 
him  a  lurid  reputation.  He  fully  understood  the 
significance  of  the  foreign  element  which  was  rap- 
idly increasing  year  by  year,  and  deplored  it,  though 
he  acknowledged  that  as  a  rule  the  troublesome 
members  of  a  ship's  crew  were  most  unfortunately 
the  British.  He  had  on  board  the  Duchess  an  un- 
usual element  of  Greeks,  and  the  subtle  ingenuity 
of  that  nation,  coupled  with  the  reckless  brutality 
of  three  or  four  English  mongrels — half-breeds 
from  the  south  of  London,  whose  parentage  owned 
a  strain  out  of  'Frisco  and  Adelaide — were  com- 
bining to  ferment  and  bring  about  an  explosion. 

The  question  of  his  own  indiscretion  assumed 
much  more  serious  proportions  to  D'Arcy  Amyas 
than  those  of  his  men,  at  the  moment  when  the 
two  came  up  before  him.  He  was  no  drunkard, 
and  with  the  usual  etiquette  of  'board  ship  took 
water  with  his  meals  ;  but  his  popularity  demanded 
that  he  should  take  and  stand  peg  for  peg,  and  the 
denial  of  such  a  custom  would  put  it  to  a  severe 
strain,  he  feared.  Would  it  be  possible  to  do  as 
Mrs.  Burt  suggested,  and  "  manoeuvre  "  his  drinks  ? 
he  wondered  with  grim  amusement.  It  was  a 


Ii6  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

thoroughly  feminine  notion,  and  required  a  woman's 
skill  to  adapt  such  a  fine  device!  Nevertheless 
Amyas  could  take  a  good  suggestion.  He  wanted 
neither  the  muddled  head  nor  the  reputation  of  a 
tippler  on  his  own  boat. 

He  had  an  opportunity  of  making  his  first  essay 
in  prudent  moderation  and  sobriety  the  very  next 
morning.  He  was  going  round  the  ship  just  before 
noon,  chatting  to  one  and  another,  when  he  heard 
himself  hailed  jovially  from  the  door  of  the  smok- 
ing-room. 

"  Hulloa,  Captain !  Come  in  and  have  a  drink. 
What  shall  it  be?" 

The  offer  came  from  an  influential  quarter — a 
man  of  millions  who  went  backwards  and  forwards 
to  Johannesburg,  and  whose  patronage  of  Saver- 
nakes'  Line  drew  a  large  percentage  of  his  friends 
with  him.  A  lightning  review  of  the  situation 
flashed  over  Amyas'  mind,  and  he  handled  it  as 
delicately  as  he  ever  did  the  sextant. 

"  Can't  take  anythin'  just  now,  thanks ! "  he  said, 
laying  his  hand  familiarly  on  the  millionaire's 
shoulder.  "  I've  got  to  take  the  sun,  and  that's 
about  enough  for  my  head.  By  the  way,"  he  low- 
ered his  voice  into  confidential  amusement  that 
brought  an  answering  smile  to  the  other's  face, 
"  what  do  you  think  of  that  young  lady  ?  " 

A  girl  had  strolled  past  them  slowly  towards  the 
deckhouse,  bearing  a  shawl  and  a  book  with  her. 
She  was  tall  and  well-dressed,  but  with  an  air  of 
languor  and  quasi-invalidism  about  her. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  117 

"  Ah  !  funny  thing  you  should  have  mentioned 
it !  "  said  the  millionaire.  "  We've  all  been  speaking 
of  her.  Paxton,  you  were  saying  she  was  pretty  !  " 

The  man  addressed  joined  them  in  the  doorway, 
and  two  or  three  other  smokers  came  over,  cigar  in 
hand,  to  look  at  the  girl  in  question  as  she  sauntered 
up  the  deck. 

"  She  poses  as  an  invalid — never  gets  up  till 
twelve  o'clock  !  "  said  one.  "  Can't  see  that  there's 
much  the  matter  with  her !  " 

"  I  don't  call  her  bad-looking — but  she's  by  no 
means  the  prettiest  woman  on  board." 

«  Not  bad  style,  though ! " 

"  I  tell  you  what,"  said  Amyas  deliberately. 
"  She  wears  the  most  beautiful  underclothing  of  any 
woman  I  ever  met ! " 

The  millionaire  burst  into  a  roar  of  laughter. 
The  Captain's  hand  was  still  on  his  shoulder — the 
prestige  of  such  familiarity  flattered  him  as  much  as 
the  last  speech  tickled  his  palate.  "  Make  yourself 
agreeable  in  some  other  way,"  Mrs.  Burt  had  said. 
Amyas  was  applying  her  advice.  His  intimate 
action  with  the  man  who  would  have  treated  him 
was  only  the  alternative — the  girl  walking  into  the 
deckhouse  was  only  the  sacrifice — offered  for  his 
popularity. 

"  Come,  Captain  Amyas,"  said  one  of  the  other 
men  more  seriously,  "  since  you  have  said  so  much 
I  think  you  had  better  explain  a  little  further !  " 

Two  or  three  of  the  listeners  had  moved  away 
with  a  light  laugh.  They  went  back  to  their  dis- 


ii8  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

tant  tables,  out  of  earshot,  with  a  satirical  wonder 
whether  Amyas  were  the  lady-killer  that  he  posed  to 
be — but  on  the  whole  concluding  that  there  was  no 
smoke  without  fire. 

"  Well,  as  you  say,  she  never  comes  on  deck  till 
midday.  I  go  my  rounds  of  the  cabins  before  she 
leaves  hers  sometimes,  and  I  have  unintentionally 
intruded  on  her  when  she  was  doing  her  hair  with- 
out her  frock  on.  That  was  all  I  meant — of  course  !  " 

"  It  sounded  otherwise !  "  said  one  of  his  hearers 
dryly.  But  the  millionaire  was  laughing  till  he  was 
red  in  the  face.  Whether  or  no  he  believed  the  ex- 
planation he  looked  as  if  he  were  enjoying  himself. 

Amyas  turned  away  and  went  up  to  the  chart- 
room  where  his  Officers  awaited  him.  Perhaps  his 
clearer  brain  this  morning  made  him  keener  over 
the  half-hour's  navigation,  but  it  chanced  anyhow 
that  he  differed  from  the  second  Mate  on  the  posi- 
tion of  the  boat.  They  were  still  arguing  amicably 
when  there  came  a  sound  that  made  the  Captain 
raise  his  head. 

The  echo  of  a  hoarse  roar — the  sound  of  men 
scuffling — a  voice  raised  in  angry  expostulation — 
such  sounds  as  are  inexcusable  under  the  law  and 
order  of  a  ship.  Every  Officer  was  off  the  boat 
deck  and  on  the  bridge,  looking  down  on  the 
foc's'le,  before  the  sounds  died  away,  the  Captain's 
demeanour  in  every  way  the  quietest  of  them  all. 

And  yet  he  knew  and  recognized  what  was  hap- 
pening as  did  none  of  the  others,  and  his  mind  and 
nerves  were  braced  to  meet  a  possible  danger. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  119 

Somewhere  in  the  recesses  of  his  soul  Amyas  saw 
and  knew  a  demon  of  fear  which  struck  a  quivering 
jar  through  all  his  nerves  at  the  mere  mention  of 
pain  or  a  difficulty  to  be  faced.  But  this  knowledge 
of  his  was  buried  so  deep  in  him  that  his  brain 
hardly  acknowledged  it — the  less  so  because  the 
second  after  that  inevitable  sensation  of  nausea  his 
nerves  and  senses  would  be  strung  like  steel  wire, 
and  his  mind  be  cool  to  judge  instantly  and  execute 
justice  immediately.  The  power  which  always 
came  to  him  with  the  necessity  to  face  a  great  mo- 
ment, after  that  first  spasm  of  revulsion,  was  the 
most  terrifying,  to  himself,  of  all  his  experiences. 

The  cause  of  the  trouble  at  the  moment  was  that 
six  men  had  forced  their  way  to  the  spirits  carried 
on  the  boat,  attacked  and  stunned  the  chief  stew- 
ard, and  made  such  good  use  of  their  opportunities 
that  they  were  all  more  or  less  drunk.  The  outrage 
was  discovered  by  seeing  a  light  in  the  storeroom, 
and  when  the  quartermaster  demanded  their  instant 
abandonment  of  their  position,  the  scuffle  ensued 
whose  noise  reached  even  those  sharpened  ears  on 
the  boat  deck.  The  mutineers  and  the  repelling 
party  hustled  each  other  up  on  to  the  foc's'le  deck, 
contesting  every  inch  of  the  way,  and  making  as 
much  clamour  as  if  half  the  crew,  instead  of  about  a 
dozen,  were  engaged  in  a  hand-to-hand  encounter. 
All  that  the  passengers  knew  was  that  there  was  a 
drunken  row  in  the  third-class — they  thought  it  was 
amongst  the  steerage  passengers,  until  the  sound  of 
the  Captain's  voice  rang  down  the  promenade  deck 


120  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

giving  an  order  that  threw  a  new  light  on  the  pro- 
ceedings. 

"  Lock  the  women  in  their  cabins.  The  men  will 
follow  me." 

He  did  not  know  when  he  spoke  how  many  of 
the  crew  had  mutinied,  or  how  large  a  trouble  he 
might  not  have  to  face.  As  a  fact,  of  the  six  disaf- 
fected men  ^three  were  incapable  from  the  spirits 
they  had  drunk,  and  of  the  remaining  three,  a  bullet 
wound  in  the  arm  soon  brought  two  to  reason. 
The  ringleader,  the  supple  hot-blooded  Greek,  was 
just  enough  inflamed  to  be  as  dangerous  as  a  wild 
beast  at  bay.  It  was  on  him  that  the  Captain 
turned  with  a  fury  suppressed,  but  equal  in  depth  to 
his  own. 

The  ladies  who  had  been  sitting  about  on  deck 
had  been  driven  as  a  flock  of  sheep  into  the  deck- 
house, and  in  most  cases  were  willing  enough  to 
obey  orders  and  take  refuge  in  their  own  cabins. 
The  stewards  turned  the  keys  on  them,  and  returned 
to  the  deck  to  see  what  could  be  seen  of  the  affair, 
and  found  the  male  passengers  had,  to  a  man,  an- 
swered the  Captain's  demand  by  moving  up  in  a 
mass  behind  him,  seemingly  extremely  willing  for 
the  fray.  One  or  two  had  rushed  down  to  their 
cabins  for  such  arms  as  they  possessed,  but  the  ma- 
jority trusted  to  the  persuasion  of  muscle  alone 
should  they  get  a  chance  to  fight. 

When  it  came  to  Mrs.  Burt's  turn  to  be  locked  in, 
however,  she  turned  to  bay  and  refused  the  ignominy. 

"  I  am  not  a  child  to  be  treated  like  this,"  she 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  121 

said.  "  I  wish  to  know  what  goes  on.  My — hus- 
band is  on  deck."  But  it  was  not  of  the  man 
whom  she  had  likened  to  a  red  herring  that  she 
thought  at  the  moment. 

"  The  Captain  is  afraid  of  some  one  getting  shot, 
madam,"  said  the  distracted  steward,  overawed  by  a 
stronger  will. 

"  I  promise  not  to  come  on  deck  unless  I  see  an 
imperative  necessity — unless  I  hear  something  that 
forces  me  to  come — but  I  will  not  be  locked  in," 
said  Anstice,  and  the  man  perforce  left  her  sitting 
quietly  there  with  her  hands  pressed  together  and 
the  cabin  door  flung  wide. 

Overhead  she  could  hear  voices,  and  occasionally 
shouts — the  tramping  of  feet — and  then  shots.  She 
half  started  up,  listening  with  strained  attention,  but 
there  were  no  cries,  and  the  riot  seemed  quieting 
down.  After  a  few  minutes  of  the  intolerable  si- 
lence she  walked  swiftly  through  the  deserted  alley- 
ways and  up  on  deck,  where  a  scene  met  her  eyes  as 
silently  dramatic  as  any  she  remembered  on  the  stage. 

Every  man  on  the  boat  seemed  to  have  gathered 
together  on  the  lower  deck  near  the  for'ard  hatch. 
Anstice  stood  above  them,  leaning  over  the  rail,  and 
looked  down  at  their  tense,  absorbed  faces.  Imme- 
diately below  her  lay  the  three  men  who  were  stupid 
with  drink,  with  some  of  the  loyal  portion  of  the 
crew  mounting  guard  over  them.  The  shots  she 
had  heard  had  evidently  taken  effect  on  the  big 
Englishman  and  another  slighter  bluejacket,  for 
they  were  being  sternly  dealt  with  by  the  doctor  as 


122  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

though  he  would  offer  his  services  for  the  sake  of 
common  humanity — but  no  more.  The  centre  of 
the  group  was  the  Greek  and  Captain  Amyas ; 
there  was  scarce  a  yard  between  them,  but  the  rebel 
stood  as  if  at  bay,  untouched  and  free-handed. 
Even  as  Anstice's  eyes  fell  on  them  Amyas  gave 
the  order  to  arrest  the  mutineer,  and  before  it  could 
be  executed  the  man  had  sprung  forward  and  closed 
with  him.  She  saw  them  rock  backwards  and  for- 
wards as  she  clung  to  the  rail,  stricken  speechless 
and  helpless  with  her  fear.  A  dozen  men  rushed 
to  the  rescue,  but  not  before  the  Greek  had  lowered 
his  head  and  fastened  his  teeth  like  a  mad  dog  in 
Amyas'  arm.  Anstice  saw  him  shaken  off  before 
other  assistance  could  reach  them,  with  a  sickening 
of  her  senses — she  saw,  too,  the  straight  blow 
planted  fair  between  the  eyes  which  sent  the  muti- 
neer down  on  the  deck  with  a  thud,  though  the 
next  instant  Amyas'  arm  dropped  to  his  side  help- 
less and  disabled.  The  Greek  had  bitten  clean 
through  the  white  uniform  which  the  Officers  all 
wore  during  the  hot  weather — had  it  been  the  blue 
cloth  his  savage  effort  would  have  been  useless, 
though  his  drunken  force  while  he  held  on  would 
still  have  wrenched  the  muscles.  She  sank  on  her 
knees,  her  hands  still  clasping  the  rail,  and  her 
breath  sobbing  between  her  drawn  lips,  and  there 
Joseph  Guinness  found  her  when  he  returned  to  the 
deck  a  minute  later  to  assume  a  momentary  respon- 
sibility as  Master  in  his  senior's  place. 

Amyas'  wound  was  not  sufficient  to  incapacitate 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  123 

him  in  any  way  after  it  had  been  dressed.  It  was 
slightly  inflamed,  and  his  arm  bruised  and  painful 
so  that  he  went  about  with  it  in  a  sling,  but  his 
composure  when  he  appeared  on  deck  was  quite 
unruffled.  The  accident  had  caused  quite  an  ex- 
citement on  the  voyage,  and  of  course  he  found 
himself  something  of  a  hero  amongst  the  feminine 
portion  of  his  passengers.  He  was  shrewd  enough 
neither  to  encourage  nor  discourage  their  eulogies, 
leaving  the  incident  to  add  to  his  popularity  as  it 
might.  His  apparent  freedom  from  any  anxiety 
smoothed  over  the  disturbing  sense  of  danger  that 
might  have  grown  amongst  the  passengers,  and  as 
a  fact  the  mutiny  was  nipped  in  the  bud  at  the  right 
moment.  The  rebels  were  put  in  irons,  but  no 
further  sign  of  dissatisfaction  appeared  among  the 
crew,  even  though  they  were  short  of  hands  until 
they  reached  Southampton. 

The  first  time  that  Anstice  Le  Croix  saw  Amyas 
alone  after  the  affray  she  came  into  his  cabin,  where 
he  was  resting  one  afternoon,  under  excuse  of  in- 
quiries from  the  passengers. 

"  We  are  thinking  of  celebrating  your  recovery 
by  giving  you  a  dinner,  if  you  will  let  us,"  she  said, 
sitting  down  by  his  side. 

He  shook  his  head.  "  It  is  very  kind  of  you,  but 
it  makes  too  much  of  the  affair." 

"  Well,  do  let  us  do  something  !  May  we  stand 
champagne  and  drink  your  health  to-night  ?  " 

"  What,  after  all  your  lectures  on  temperance  ? 
How  can  you  be  so  inconsistent  ?  " 


124  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  Ah,  forgive  me.  I  have  felt  so  humiliated  when 
I  remembered  my  impertinence  to  you  only  the 
night  before.  To  think  that  I  presumed  to  criticise 
you ! " 

"  My  dear  girl,  why  shouldn't  you  ?  As  I  told 
you,  I  always  listen  to  women.  And  your  advice 
had  the  effect  in  all  probability  of  keepin'  me  a  cool 
head  when  I  wanted  it  most.  It  would  have  been 
a  nasty  moment  for  me  when  Safridi  flew  at  me  if  I 
had  had  as  much  liquor  as  he  had  had  ! " 

She  shivered,  and  lifting  his  unharmed  hand,  laid 
it  against  her  lips. 

"  I  saw  it  all,"  she  confessed.  "  I  know  I  was  dis- 
obeying your  orders,  but  I  could  not  be  locked  up 
while  you  were  in  danger,  to  know  nothing  about 
it  Oh,  I  saw  that  if  any  one  came  to  harm  it 
would  be  you — I  felt  it ! " 

He  laughed,  and  pressed  his  hand  carelessly 
against  her  face.  "  There  was  not  much  harm,  he 
only  bit  like  any  other  wild  beast." 

"  And  you  knocked  him  down !  I  wonder  why 
a  woman  loves  to  see  one  man  knock  another 
down  ?  "  she  said,  half  laughing  and  half  crying, 
her  emotions  all  run  loose  at  the  mere  memory. 
"  Do  you  know  what  I  thought  at  that  moment  ?  " 
she  whispered.  "  I  wondered  why  I  had  ever  said 
'  No  '  to  you  about — anything.  I  could  not  have 
done  so  then." 

"  Could  you  now  ?  " 

She  looked  up,  her  eyes  half  full  of  tears, 
her  lips  laughing  tremulously.  "  Oh  !  "  she 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  125 

cried,  slipping  down  on  her  knees  by  his  side, 
"  you  are  a  man  ! — a  man !  I  would  give  you 
anything  that  you  asked — anything  that  a  woman 
may." 


CHAPTER  IX 

"  I  will  look  into  his  future, 

I  will  bless  it  till  it  shine, 
Should  he  never  be  a  suitor 
Unto  fairer  eyes  than  mine !  " 

E.  BARRETT  BROWNING 

THE  horseshoe  table  was  comfortably  filled  with- 
out that  pressure  for  space  which  besets  so  many 
Company  dinners,  and  furthermore,  there  was  a 
desirable  leaven  of  outsiders  to  counteract  the 
element  of  those  intrinsically  interested  in  Saver- 
nakes'.  When  the  great  firm  gave  a  dinner  they 
were  wise  in  their  generation,  and  issued  invitations 
to  people  in  high  places  whose  presence  lent  an  air 
of  distinction  to  the  function,  as  well  as  being 
"  good  for  trade  "  on  advertisement  lines.  Women, 
beautifully  dressed  and  beautifully  mannered, 
brought  their  fair  faces  and  costly  gowns  to  add 
lustre  to  their  husbands,  who  had  probably  pur- 
chased the  jewels  they  wore  through  some  fortunate 
connection  with  Savernakes' ;  but  the  trade  aspect 
of  the  entertainment  was  gracefully  ignored,  or  so 
lightly  acknowledged  that  it  lost  its  vulgar  signifi- 
cance. 

"  What  is  this  tale  of  a  mutiny,  Sir  John  ?  "  said 

Lady  Arthur  Hyde  to  the  present  head  of  the  firm. 

Sir  John  Cross  turned  from  the  sweets  offered  him, 

and  raised  his  eyebrows  with  a  deprecating  com- 

126 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  127 

icality.  Lady  Arthur  was  leaning  forward,  her 
fair  face  raised  as  though  in  anticipation  of  a  story ; 
he  thought,  as  he  noticed  the  firm  white  neck 
against  the  purple  velvet  of  her  gown,  that  some 
beauty  is  immortal.  For  how  many  years  had 
Lord  Arthur  been  on  the  Board  ?  And  he  was  a 
married  man  before  he  was  a  Director.  But  in 
view  of  Lady  Arthur's  fearlessly  raised  face  the 
question  was  a  heresy.  Women  of  any  question- 
able age  did  not  court  inspection  under  electric 
light,  however  shaded. 

"  Shop !  shop  !  My  dear  lady !  "  he  protested, 
shaking  his  head.  "  How  can  I  answer  you  ?  " 

"  Oh,  we  are  all  friends  here."  She  laughed  a 
little,  and  sipped  her  Perrier  Jouet  daintily.  "  Cap- 
tain Harrington  has  a  story  of  mutiny  that  makes 
one's  blood  dance !  Is  it  possible  anything  so 
romantic  can  intrude  on  steam  in  these  prosaic 
days  ?  " 

"  Not  very  romantic  for  the  Master,"  said  her 
vis-a-vis.  "  A  set  of  drunken  ruffians  probably, 
dissatisfied  with  their  food.  Was  it  the  firemen 
who  gave  rise  to  the  story,  Savernake  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  the  youngest  member  of  the  firm 
briefly.  "  As  I  heard  it,  it  was  the  crew  above 
deck.  There  was  a  foreign  element  in  it,  I  believe 
— an  unusual  cause  of  trouble,  I  grieve  to  say." 

"  Why,  Mr.  Savernake,  would  you  have  a  mutiny 
every  voyage?"  asked  another  lady,  turning  to 
him. 

"No,"  said  Bernard  Savernake  grimly;  "but  I 


128  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

am  British  enough  to  wish  that  all  the  bad  qualities 
were  confined  to  other  countries,  and  that  our 
own  seamen  were  as  civil  and  hard-working  as  the 
Swedes  or  French.  It  never  will  be  so  until  a 
great  reform  takes  place  in  our  Merchant  Service, 
and  so  until  then  the  foreigners  will  get  the  berths 
over  the  heads  of  the  British — and  small  blame  to 
the  owners  who  employ  them." 

One  or  two  men  smiled  covertly  as  Mr.  Saver- 
nake's  mouth  shut  with  a  snap,  and  the  corners 
drew  down  like  an  inverted  half-moon.  "  Saver- 
nake  mounted  on  his  hobby,"  was  the  general  ex- 
pectation. But  he  had  said  his  say,  and  dropped 
back  into  his  self-contained  silence,  a  dry,  keen- 
faced  old  gentleman  whose  forty  years  of  ship- 
owning  had  taught  him  the  weary  hopelessness  of 
reform. 

"  But  the  story."  Lady  Arthur's  soft  voice  had 
a  ripple  of  careless  amusement.  "  I  am  like  a  child 
who  only  wants  the  narrative  part,  am  I  not? 
Won't  somebody  tell  me  ?  Has  one  of  our  boats 
really  mutinied  ?  " 

An  impressionable  Director  came  to  the  rescue 
with  an  answering  smile  for  her  asking  eyes. 

"  Forgive  me  if  I  embroider  in  the  hope  of 
pleasing  you,  Lady  Arthur,"  he  announced,  and 
the  buzz  at  that  end  of  the  table  died  into  a  wait- 
ing silence  after  his  laughing  appeal.  "  Know  then 
that  Savernakes"  boasts  a  Captain  who  has  brought 
his  ship  safely  home  in  the  teeth  of  rank  insubordi- 
nation among  the  crew,  with  one  of  whom  he  had 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  129 

a  hand-to-hand  struggle — yes,  indeed,  Lady  Arthur 
— before  he  overcame  him,  and  the  man  was  put  in 
irons.  What  do  you  say  now  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  would  like  to  have  been  there,  of  course. 
And  did  this  Captain  come  off  unharmed  ?  You 
have  not  told  us  which  of  the  boats  it  was." 

"  I  have  not  heard,  to  remember  it,  or  whether 
the  mutineers  did  any  physical  damage." 

"  Yes  ;  unfortunately  to  the  plucky  Captain,"  put 
in  another  man.  "  I  heard  that  the  rebel  turned  to 
bay,  wild-cat  fashion,  and  bit  to  the  bone." 

"  Brute  ! "  said  Lady  Arthur  with  dainty  disdain. 
"  I  hope  our  hero  was  not  injured  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no.  The  Duchess — that  was  the  boat,  Far- 
ringdon,  and  her  Captain's  name  was  Amyas — 
came  home  safely." 

"  Amyas ! "  said  Bernard  Savernake  in  some 
surprise.  "  The  son  of  my  old  friend,  Captain 
Amyas  ?  " 

"  The  same,  I  suppose.  His  father  was  a  Naval 
man." 

"  You  don't  say  so !  I  remember  the  present 
man  as  a  lad,  rather  a  slight  sensitive  little  fellow. 
He  has  come  out  unexpectedly  !  " 

Lady  Arthur  was  looking  up  at  the  gentleman 
who  had  supplied  the  name  of  the  ship  with 
strangely  bright  eyes.  They  bewildered  him,  and 
he  almost  stammered  over  the  answer  to  her  next 
question.  She  was  a  very  pretty  woman. 

"  I  hope  this  Captain  Amyas  was  really  not 
hurt?" 


130  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  Oh  dear  no,  I  think  not.  He  probably  got  as 
much  petting  and  sympathy  as  he  could  do  with 
from  the  ladies  among  his  passengers  !  " 

"  Rather  addicted  that  way,  isn't  he  ? "  said  an 
influential  outsider,  whose  interest  in  Savernakes' 
was  merely  one  of  availing  himself  of  the  quick 
transit  the  Line  afforded  for  business  in  Natal  and 
Madagascar.  "  When  I  was  last  on  a  boat  where 
he  was  in  command  there  was  nearly  a  mutiny 
among  the  passengers  rather  than  the  crew.  The 
men  objected  to  Captain  Amyas'  too  great  gallan- 
tries to  the  wives  and  daughters  they  had  with 
them — I  never  heard  of  the  wives  and  daughters 
complaining  themselves,  however!  There  was  a 
threatened  appeal  to  the  Company." 

Lady  Arthur's  inspiring  eyes  dropped  to  her 
plate.  For  one  moment  it  is  possible  that  the 
career  of  D'Arcy  Amyas  hung  in  the  balance. 

"  Fancy  a  pathetic  appeal  to  Savernakes'  not  to 
appoint  too  fascinating  Officers,  for  the  peace  of 
mind  of  some  poor  meek  little  Johannesburgher 
who  cannot  keep  his  feminine  belongings  in 
order ! "  A  ripple  of  laughter  greeted  the  sug- 
gestion, in  praise  of  its  very  absurdity.  But  Lady 
Arthur's  eyes  were  still  cast  down. 

"  Amyas  is  a  nice  fellow  though,"  some  one  testi- 
fied. "  I  travelled  with  him  last  year,  and  he  struck 
me  as  a  man  who  thoroughly  knew  his  work,  and 
was  a  gentleman  too,  by  Jove !  No  wonder  the 
women  like  him.  It  is  rather  singular  that  he  has 
remained  unmarried." 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  131 

Then  A  my  as'  good  genius  spoke  by  the  mouth 
of  an  unconscious  prophet. 

"  I  heard  some  tale  of  a  lost  ideal — no,  don't 
laugh,  Mrs.  Farringdon,  this  is  most  pathetic.  Poor 
Amyas  lost  his  heart  when  quite  a  young  man,  and 
has  remained  touchingly  true  to  his  hopeless  love. 
I  think  you  ought  to  weep  !  Why  will  your  sex 
be  so  cruel  ?  " 

"  Such  constancy  is  certainly  rare !  But  why 
would  she  not  have  him  ?  I  hear  on  all  sides  that 
he  is  a  very  popular  man." 

"  Report  does  not  say.  Perhaps  she  was  already 
out  of  reach  when  he  met  her " 

"  He  seems  to  have  better  qualities  than 
mere  social  gifts,"  said  Lady  Arthur  suddenly. 
She  drew  up  her  throat,  and  her  voice  came 
with  a  curious  thrill.  Mr.  Bernard  Savernake, 
watching  her  from  his  unostentatious  corner,  won- 
dered if  the  soft  brightness  of  her  eyes  owed  all  its 
glamour  to  the  electric  light,  or — was  it  really 
moisture  ? 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  to  check  a  mutiny  on  the 
seas  to-day  is  every  whit  as  deserving  of  praise  and 
wonder  as  in  the  old  times  of  so-called  romance 
when  such  things  were  more  common,"  she  said. 
"  I  am  proud  that  it  happened  on  our  Line  !  I 
should  like  to  have  been  there." 

"  And  to  have  congratulated  Captain  Amyas !  " 
said  somebody,  laughing. 

"  And  to  have  congratulated  the  Captain.  I 
should  like  to  sail  in  that  man's  ship — one  would  at 


132  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

all  events  feel  absolute  confidence  in  his  power  and 
resources,  whatever  occurred." 

Her  roused  voice  carried  enthusiasm  with  it. 
One  of  her  auditors  said  "  Hear  !  hear  !  " — the 
women  flushed — and  the  men  felt  a  glow  of  admira- 
tion as  for  some  unknown  hero.  Mr.  Bernard  Sav- 
ernake  leaned  a  little  over  the  table,  caught  Lady 
Arthur's  eyes  with  his,  and  held  them. 

"  You  have  never  sailed  with  Captain  Amyas?" 
he  suggested. 

"  I  am  sorry  to  say  no !  "  she  answered,  meeting 
his  gaze  with  the  frankness  and  fearlessness  of  a 
child.  "  I  have  not  been  on  our  Line  of  late  years, 
and  when  I  did  so  it  was  probably  before  Captain 
Amyas'  time.  I  may  possibly  have  been  in  the 
same  boat  with  him  " — she  calculated  the  knowl- 
edge behind  those  satirical  eyes  watching  her — "  but 
he  must  have  been  a  very  junior  Officer  if  so.  I 
am  growing  an  old  woman." 

The  men  looked  their  disclaimer — the  women  a 
critical  desire  to  prove  the  words.  Lady  Arthur 
was  physically  and  mentally  invulnerable.  She 
turned  straight  to  Sir  John  Cross. 

"  What  is  this  new  monster  we  are  building  ?  " 
she  said  playfully.  "  Twelve  thousand  tons,  is  she 
not?" 

"  Yes,  about  the  same  size  as  the  Queen.  She 
will  be  a  fine  ship.  What  is  she  to  be  called,  Saver- 
nake?  The  Princess,  is  she  not?  All  our  boats 
have  ladies'  titles — a  compliment  to  your  sex,  Lady 
Arthur." 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  133 

"  You  ought  to  give  her  to  Captain  Amyas.  Oh, 
I  know  what  you  would  say !  The  fear  of  showing 
favouritism — a  junior  man  put  over  the  heads  of  his 
fellows — the  unwritten  law  of  Promotion-accord- 
ing-to-each-man-in-his-turn.  But  it  seems  to  me 
that  the  Officer  who  has  proved  himself  the  most 
capable  is  the  real  man  for  promotion — the  safest 
Captain  for  the  most  important  boat,  and  the  one 
whose  turn  really  comes  before  all  others !  " 

"  Well  done,  Lady  Arthur  !  you  shall  speak  at 
the  next  General  Meeting ! "  said  Savernake  blandly. 

"  You  are  all  laughing  at  me."  She  drew  back 
flushed  but  radiant.  "  But  woman's  wit  is  some- 
times better  than  man's  logic.  Think  over  my  sug- 
gestion, Sir  John." 

"  Make  it  afresh  to  your  husband  when  he  is 
Chairman  of  the  Board,"  said  Sir  John  dryly.  It 
was  well  known  that  Lord  Arthur  would  probably 
fill  that  post  at  some  future  date. 

Lady  Arthur  gave  a  quick  glance  at  her  husband's 
unconscious  face,  as  he  mumbled  over  his  grapes 
and  talked  of  the  Education  Bill  with  his  neighbour. 
Perhaps  she  weighed  her  power ;  perhaps  she  merely 
wondered  how  far  a  man  would  remain  conven- 
iently blind.  Whatever  her  thoughts,  she  dropped 
the  recent  subject,  and  turning  to  the  man  next  her, 
spoke  easily  and  well  of  a  new  play  whose  first 
night  she  had  just  witnessed. 

Mr.  Bernard  Savernake,  sitting  opposite,  listened, 
and  drew  down  the  corners  of  his  mouth  until  the 
half-moon  started  into  greater  prominence  than  ever. 


134  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  Yes,  it  is  a  problem  play,  but  we  are  all  such 
problems  that  it  is  a  relief  to  leave  puzzling  over 
ourselves  to  puzzle  over  our  mimics  instead !  "  said 
Lady  Arthur. 

"That's  a  clever  woman,"  said  Mr.  Bernard 
Savernake. 


CHAPTER  X 

"  So  I  steered  my  ship  and  I  set  my  sails, 

And  another  day  has  floated  by ; 

I  made  my  way  amid  ocean  whales ; 

The  sea  is  happy,  and  so  am  I." 

—  The  Sailor's  Shocking  Story. 

"  Heave  or  sink  it,  leave  or  drink  it,  we  were  masters  of  the  sea !  " 

RUDYARD  KIPLING 

FOUR  men  were  sitting  in  the  glass  lounge  known 
as  "  Ulundi  Square  "  of  the  Royal  Hotel  at  Durban, 
one  afternoon  in  the  following  spring,  smoking  and 
drinking  whisky-and-soda.  The  Royal  is  rather  a 
happy  hunting-ground  of  Officers  of  the  boats  touch- 
ing at  Durban,  and  all  these  four  were  in  the  Mer- 
chant Service.  Three  of  them  indeed  were  in 
Savernakes' ;  the  fourth  was  on  a  no  less  great 
Line,  and  had  been  lunching  on  the  Duchess  with 
her  Captain  before  they  came  ashore. 

"  So  Corry  has  got  your  biggest  boat,  Amyas," 
said  the  man  who  was  an  outsider  of  Savernakes', 
as  he  lit  his  cigar.  "  Here,  boy !  bring  me  some 
ice  in  this."  The  tall  Zulu  stepped  across  the  tes- 
sellated pavement  on  silent  bare  feet,  took  the 
tumbler  held  out  to  him  and  retreated.  "  Know 
anything  of  him  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Amyas,  "  except  that  I  hear  he  is 
rather  a  parson.  They  used  to  call  the  Madam  the 
4  prayer-ship  '  when  he  had  her."  There  was  a  faint 
sneer  in  his  very  tone. 

'35 


136  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

The  ships  that  Captain  Amyas  commanded  were 
not  remarkable  for  their  religious  observances  ;  as  a 
fact  he  hated  anything  connected  with  the  Church 
of  England  for  the  old  ranking  sore  that  he  never 
acknowledged,  and  that  had  never  healed. 

"  Guinness  was  telling  me  a  tale  about  that,"  said 
Miles  of  the  Mem  Sahib.  "  They  were  coming  into 
Cape  Verde  once,  and  something  went  wrong  with 
the  shaft.  The  Engineer — MacCormic,  old  Mac, 
you  know — was  voting  all  the  gear  to  Davy  Jones, 
and  the  Captain  came  into  his  cabin  in  the  middle 
of  his  remarks.  '  Mr.  MacCormic,'  he  said,  '  you 
need  not  foul  your  lips.  We  are  in  the  Lord's 
hands  ! '  '  Then  He's  a  varra  bad  engineer  to  get 
the  shaft  sae  canty ! '  retorted  Mac.  The  men  vowed 
that  the  Captain  got  up  a  prayer-meeting  that  night 
on  purpose  to  pray  for  Mac !  " 

Amyas  laughed  shortly.  "  You  were  with  him 
last  trip,  weren't  you,  Jack  ?  "  he  said. 

Jack  Amyas  nodded.  He  was  still  bullet-headed 
and  dogged,  the  latter  quality  having  been  the 
means  of  getting  him  on  to  one  of  Savernakes' 
ships  as  doctor,  whereby  he  could  follow,  though 
humbly  and  at  a  distance,  in  his  stepbrother's  wake. 
He  was  a  kindly,  quiet  little  fellow,  far  more  widely 
popular  than  D'Arcy  in  reality,  and  with  half  the 
latter's  instinct  for  success. 

"  How  did  you  like  it  ? "  said  Miles  sympa- 
thetically. 

"  Not  much,"  was  the  laconic  answer.  "  He  had 
his  points.  He  has  never  made  a  bad  accident." 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  137 

"That's  more  by  luck  than  judgment,  if  he's 
always  on  his  knees,"  said  the  outsider,  unconscious 
that  Captain  Corry  would  have  said  that  the  lat- 
ter was  the  reason  of  his  immunity,  and  that  the 
"  luck  "  was  Providence.  "  Had  any  more  mutinies, 
Amyas  ?  " 

"  No,  and  I  don't  want  any.  What  was  your  last 
run?" 

"Sixteen  days  and  a  half.  It  was  a  record 
trip — record  cargo,  record  passenger  list,  record 
speed." 

"  We  can't  do  it  in  the  time,"  said  Miles  regret- 
fully. "  But  then  we  go  further." 

"  You  make  awfully  smart  passages,  I  know.  You 
don't  carry  cargo  though,  do  you  ?  " 

"  Yes,  but  not  much  on  our  passenger  boats. 
They  are  built  all  for  passenger  accommodation, 
you  see." 

"  Oh,  I  know  you're  the  dukes  of  the  Service ! 
The  passengers  are  the  fetish  of  your  Line,  and  so 
long  as  you  please  the  passengers  you  can't  go 
wrong  yourselves.  Your  entertainment  money  is 
unlimited,  and  they  treat  you  like  gentlemen,  and 
don't  ask  for  the  farthing  change.  I  have  nothing 
to  complain  of  now,  tang  de  Lord,  as  the  niggers 
say ;  but  I  have  been  on  Lines  where  they  wanted 
every  penny  accounted  for." 

"  The  whole  system  is  rotten,"  said  D'Arcy  im- 
patiently. "  The  Master  of  a  ship  is  only  so  in  name 
now.  But  it  isn't  only  that  that  is  ruinin'  the 
Merchant  Service — it's  the  foreign  competition.  It 


138  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

spoils  the  market  just  as  it  does  any  other  trade.  As 
long  as  a  German  will  sign  for  starvation  wages, 
and  accept  treatment  that  kills  our  own  men,  body 
and  soul,  the  conditions  will  never  alter.  We  want 
foreigners  taxed,  or  forced  to  become  naturalized 
subjects,  or  excluded  entirely  !  " 

"  You're  an  R.N.R.  man,  aren't  you  ?  "  said  the 
outsider  dryly.  "  I  know  the  style." 

"  Yes  ;  the  Reserve  has  faults,  but  it's  about  the 
only  loophole  left  us.  Aren't  you  ?  " 

"  Not  I !  I  mean  to  leave  the  sea  the  first  chance 
I  get.  There  used  to  be  some  chance  of  pay  or 
promotion  years  ago,  but  who  puts  their  sons  into 
the  Merchant  Service  now  who  knows  anything 
about  it  ?  No  one — there's  nothing  in  it.  Any 
fool  can  learn  to  be  an  officer  on  a  steamer,  but 
even  a  fool  leaves  when  he  finds  out  what  his  pros- 
pects are ! " 

"  Well,  it's  a  poor  lookout  in  the  next  war,"  said 
Miles  despondently.  "  But  I'm  sorry  for  the  poor 
old  country.  Nice  fools  we  shall  look  when  the 
Navy  wants  to  draw  on  us  as  a  reserve.  I  say, 
Amyas,  can  you  fancy  some  of  our  men  serving  ? 
Corry,  for  instance  ?  " 

"  He  would  consider  warfare  wrong,  and  muzzle 
the  guns  with  Scripture  texts  ! " 

"  I  see  the  Princess  is  launched,"  remarked  the 
outsider,  as  if  the  reference  to  Captain  Corry  brought 
his  mind  back  to  Savernakes'. 

"  Who's  to  have  her  ? "  said  Amyas,  smiling. 
He  took  a  coin  out  of  his  pocket  and  sent  it  spin- 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  139 

ning  into  the  air.  "  Heads  Ronaldson — tails  Lyng," 
he  said,  "  as  Corry  is  out  of  it." 

"  They  ought  to  give  her  to  you,  D'Arcy,"  Jack 
Amyas  said  simply,  "  if  they  want  her  kept  full." 

There  was  the  briefest  silence,  for  the  truth  and 
the  audacity  of  the  suggestion  were  about  equal. 

"  It  will  be  some  time  before  I  command  a  12,000 
tonner !  "  said  D'Arcy,  putting  the  coin  back  in  his 
pocket.  "  Have  you  heard  anything  more  about 
the  mail  contract,  Miles  ?  How  in  the  world  we 
have  kept  our  Line  to  what  it  is,  unsubsidized,  only 
the  Directors  know  !  Could  your  Line  do  it  ?  "  he 
asked  the  outsider. 

"  I  should  be  sorry  to  belong  to  any  Line  with- 
out the  mail  contract,"  was  the  dry  response.  "  But 
the  story  goes  that  you  are  subsidized — secretly,  by 
Government,  in  the  event  of  a  war." 

"  If  so  we  don't  know  anythin'  about  it  ourselves, 
and  though  it  might  be  so  under  the  United  States 
Government,  or  even  the  German,  it's  damned  un- 
like the  British  !  What  the  deuce  have  they  ever 
cared  about  the  Naval  Reserve?  They  don't  ac- 
knowledge the  Mercantile  Marine,  and  all  their  care 
is  to  cut  down  the  mail  contracts  until  we  can't 
compete  with  the  foreign  lines.  Have  we  really  got 
the  mails,  Miles  ?  " 

"  Yes,  it's  a  fact.  We  are  to  have  the  contract 
for  Madagascar,  and  so  we  shall  be  able  to  write  the 
magic  R.M.S.  before  the  boat's  name  at  last.  Lord 
Arthur  Hyde  got  us  that.  It  was  a  good  thing  for 
the  Company  to  put  him  into  the  Chair." 


140  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  Is  he  Chairman  ? "  said  D'Arcy,  looking  up 
with  sudden  personal  interest.  "  I  hadn't  heard." 

"  Yes,  he's  Chairman.  Old  Cross  retired  as  sleep- 
ing partner.  When  do  you  take  the  Duchess  to 
Cape  Town,  Amyas  ?  " 

"  To-morrow,  if  our  great  man  can  get  off,"  said 
the  Captain,  laughing.  "  If  not  we  must  kick  our 
heels  on  the  Bar  for  another  twenty-four  hours." 

"  Are  you  coming  to  Cape  Town  ?  "  said  the  out- 
sider in  some  surprise.  "  How  is  that  ?  We  can't 
have  you  trespassing  on  our  route,  Amyas  !  " 

"  Some  freak  of  the  Company's — it  is  an  unprece- 
dented thing,"  said  D'Arcy  carelessly. 

The  fact  was  that  a  great  man — a  semi-official — 
had  been  graciously  pleased  to  signify  that  he  would 
like  to  travel  by  one  of  Savernakes'  boats  if  she 
could  be  taken  round  to  Cape  Town,  where  of 
course  they  did  not  touch  as  a  rule.  The  Company 
were  obliging,  as  it  behoved  them  to  be.  Without 
throwing  their  passengers  into  inconvenience  by 
altering  the  usual  service,  they  adapted  a  cargo  boat 
in  the  place  of  one  of  the  smaller  vessels,  and  the 
Duchess  being  then  at  Durban,  they  deputed 
D'Arcy  Amyas  to  take  the  semi-official  whither  he 
would  go,  and  then  bring  his  boat  home  as  usual. 
His  trip  being  a  little  out  of  order  it  was  probable 
that  he  would  not  have  a  full  boat  home,  but  he 
was  known  as  a  Captain  who  attracted  custom,  and 
it  was  not  likely  that  the  Duchess  would  be  empty. 

The  conversation  in  Ulundi  Square  shifted  and 
wandered,  but  generally  hovered  on  the  confines  of 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  141 

"  shop."  Who  had  taken  his  boat  home ;  what 
men  had  been  removed  to  another  berth ;  in  what 
way  the  Service  was  likely  to  alter,  and  whether 
there  were  any  chance  of  abuses  being  mended. 
The  men  grumbled  a  little ;  that  was  natural  with 
promotion  deadly  slow,  no  pensions,  and  a  life  that 
was  full  of  wearing  responsibility  and  small  discour- 
agements. 

"  Look  here !  "  said  Miles  at  one  point.  "  What 
chance  do  we  ever  get,  first  to  last  ?  Can  any  of 
you  think  of  your  sailing  days  without  a  shudder  ? 
I  suppose  we  were  as  likely  little  chaps  as  other 
boys,  but  tumbled  head-first  into  that  hell  of  a  life, 
we  were  bound  to  be  moulded  into  blackguards  of 
some  sort." 

"  It's  a  healthy  life  anyway,  isn't  it  ?  "  said  Jack 
Amyas  quietly.  "  Don't  you  think  you've  got  some 
advantage  over  the  city  clerk  grinding  in  an  office 
all  day?" 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  D'Arcy  with  a  trace  of  hes- 
itation. "  It's  not  exactly  healthy  either.  Look  at 
the  extremes  of  heat  and  cold  we  are  absolutely 
livin'  in  !  Passin'  backwards  and  forwards,  through 
the  tropics  to  temperate  regions — which  are  beastly 
cold  at  sea ! — always  exposed,  always  on  the  same 
monotonous  route.  No,  I  don't  call  it  exactly 
healthy  for  mind  or  body.  The  Naval  men  are 
moved  from  station  to  station,  with  time  to  get  ac- 
climatized. We  are  passin'  backwards  and  forwards 
for  the  best  part  of  our  lives  over  the  same  seas  ! " 

"  I  think  you'd  find  the  difference  if  you  tried  the 


142  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

office,"  said  Jack  dryly,  "  and  see  the  advantages  of 
your  present  position." 

"  Oh,  it's  a  weary  world  !  "  said  the  outsider,  drop- 
ping back  in  his  basket  chair  and  staring  up  at  the 
glass  roof  and  the  palms.  "  You've  got  the  plums 
of  the  profession  in  your  Line — you  gold-laced 
dandies  !  What  in  heaven's  name  does  your  uni- 
form cost  you,  Amyas  ?  " 

"  It  depends  on  your  means,"  said  Amyas.  He 
had  come  into  his  patrimony  years  ago,  by  the  terms 
of  his  father's  will,  and  did  not  save  his  private  in- 
come. What  did  not  go  on  his  clothes  went  on  his 
ship — not  in  absolute  gold-leaf,  or  supplying  de- 
ficiencies, as  it  might  have  done  in  the  Navy,  but  in 
various  small  ways  that  were  no  doubt  factors  in 
his  popularity.  It  was  Captain  Amyas,  for  instance, 
who  worked  up  the  band  of  the  Duchess  until  they 
were  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  and  an  envy  to  the  Cap- 
tains of  larger  vessels.  He  was  reported  to  bribe 
them  to  improve  themselves  ;  he  had  certainly  sup- 
plied them  with  better  instruments.  But  there  was 
no  detail  which  would  please  the  passengers  and  fill 
his  cabins  which  he  neglected. 

"  Seen  the  papers  ?  "  Jack  Amyas  said,  tossing  a 
month-old  Daily  Telegraph  over  to  the  outsider. 
"  The  Shipmasters  met  the  other  day — it's  a  few 
weeks  old  by  now,  I  admit.  But  I  thought  it  might 
interest  you." 

"  The  meeting  is  done  and  over  by  now,  anyway. 
I'm  a  member,  but  I  haven't  had  the  chance  of  at- 
tending for  five  years,  and  I  don't  care  much  about 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  143 

it  when  I  am  ashore.  One  gets  detached  from  these 
things.  That's  one  of  the  inevitable  results  of  being 
a  sailor." 

"  What's  the  good  of  the  Shipmasters  ? "  said 
Amyas  with  nervous  scorn.  "  I  used  to  subscribe 
once — well,  I  do  now  if  they  want  subscriptions. 
I'm  not  a  member  for  the  same  reason  that  you  are 
not  a  Reserve  man — they  are  no  good  to  me,  and 
I've  lost  faith  in  them." 

"  You're  too  much  of  a  blooming  toff,  old  man  ! " 
amended  Miles,  laughing.  "  Our  fellows  think  the 
Shipmasters  low — too  much  of  a  trade  union  in  it 
for  them." 

"  I  wish  it  were !  The  Engineers  have  societies 
and  combinations  that  mean  solid  strength,  and  look 
at  their  position  in  consequence.  Can  you  fancy  us 
combinin'  ?  " 

All  D'Arcy's  hearers  laughed — without  bitterness, 
because  the  subject  was  so  long  since  hopeless. 
The  Masters  of  the  sea  have  seen  their  authority 
and  ancient  rights  taken  from  them  bit  by  bit,  until 
there  is  hardly  a  Line  where  the  Company's  agent 
in  any  little  port  cannot  bully  the  Captain  of  the 
smartest  Liner  afloat.  But  they  have  never  been 
able  to  combine  to  help  themselves.  The  seas 
divide  them,  and  their  different  routes  keep  them 
apart,  so  that  Liverpool  and  Southampton  and  Lon- 
don have  their  separate  "  local  centres,"  but  the  pro- 
fession is  split  up  and  goes  unrepresented.  Further- 
more, flesh  and  blood  is  cheap,  even  when  trained 
and  stored  with  the  peculiar  knowledge  required  by 


144  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

the  Service,  and  competition  proves  that  ships  are 
few  and  men  many.  The  Officers  of  the  Mercantile 
Marine  distrust  each  other,  and  are  goaded  by  a 
pathetic  anxiety  for  the  wives  and  families  behind 
them.  The  welfare  of  the  whole  profession  is  but  a 
small  thing  against  the  drawbacks  of  the  few  who 
are  near  and  dear  to  them — they  are  afraid,  and  the 
owners  know  it. 

"  You  believe  in  the  education  craze,  don't  you  ?  " 
said  the  outsider  gloomily  to  Amyas.  "  I've  heard 
your  views  quoted.  Improve  the  men,  and  the  bet- 
ter position  must  follow." 

"  I  used  to."  Amyas  shrugged  his  shoulders. 
"  What  does  it  all  matter  ?  The  Masters  won't  help 
themselves,  and  no  one  can  help  them.  The  trainin' 
ships  will  turn  out  a  few  decent  Officers  every  year, 
and — the  pick  will  go  to  the  Navy.  We  shall  get 
the  remainder  in  our  profession,  and  be  thankful." 

"  In  our  profession  ?  "  retorted  Miles.  "  It  isn't  a 
profession,  or  a  trade  either,  certain.  It's  nothing. 
They  describe  us  as  '  carriers '  by  law — and  they 
call  us  '  hotel-keepers  '  in  derision.  It's  a  '  calling,' 
I  suppose, — that's  a  safe  word — '  the  calling  of  the 
sea ' !  We  have  got  as  much  rank  as  we  have  au- 
thority, and  less  future  than  either." 

" '  But  when  it  comes  to  fightin',  Lord  ! 
They'll  shove  us  in  the  stalls  ! '  " 

hummed  Jack.  "  It's  no  use  talking — we're  under 
the  Board  of  Trade,  not  the  Admiralty." 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  145 

And  there  was  a  brief  silence  full  of  the  helpless- 
ness of  things. 

"  Well,  I  wish  you  joy  of  your  great  man, 
and  such  a  successful  voyage  as  shall  run  you 
up  the  promotion  ladder ! "  said  the  outsider,  as 
Amyas  rose  at  last,  saying  he  had  to  get  back  on 
board. 

"  Thanks,  old  man  !  I  don't  look  to  follow  Corry 
on  the  Queen  yet  awhile  though." 

"  Your  firm  are  always  building.  The  last  ship  is 
barely  launched." 

"  But  no  doubt  she  is  already  bespoken,"  said 
Amyas  coolly,  turning  on  his  heel.  His  step-brother 
rose  as  a  matter  of  course  and  followed  him,  a  few 
paces  behind,  so  that  he  had  the  grotesque  appear- 
ance of  a  dog  at  heel.  But  it  was  on  the  figure  of 
the  older  man  that  the  eyes  of  the  two  men  left  be- 
hind rested,  as  he  strolled  down  into  the  coffee-room, 
and  out  through  the  hotel. 

"  Say  what  any  one  will,  that  is  the  future  Cap- 
tain of  the  Princess  !  "  said  Miles  thoughtfully.  "  It 
may  be  a  scandal  in  the  Company,  but  I  am  as  sure 
of  it  as  if  I  saw  the  Directors'  letter." 

"  I  should  say  it  would  be  impossible  to  lift  him 
over  the  heads  of  so  many  others,  unless  there's  a 
lot  of  undue  influence  at  work,"  said  the  outsider 
decidedly. 

"  Oh  !  "  said  Miles,  taking  a  well-worn  briar  out 
of  his  pocket  and  slowly  packing  the  tobacco  into 
it.  His  blunt  fingers  tucked  in  the  least  strand  of 
the  weed  with  a  nicety  which  seemed  impossible 


146  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

from  their  appearance.     "  But  you  don't  know  Sav- 
ernakes'.     Your  Line  mightn't,  ours  might." 

D'Arcy  took  the  great  man  round  to  Cape  Town, 
and  that  personage  was  very  well  pleased  with  his 
trip,  and  went  about  saying  that  Amyas  was  a  good 
fellow  and  delightful  to  sail  with.  Which  naturally 
enough  did  him  no  harm.  While  in  harbour 
D'Arcy  employed  himself  in  entertaining  on  board, 
and  finished  up  by  inviting  the  Officers  of  the  flag- 
ship then  at  Simon's  Town  to  lunch  with  himself 
and  his  own  staff.  The  Beatrice  men  came,  and 
filled  a  long  table  with  their  dark-blue  figures  and 
pleasant  bronzed  faces.  Sitting  at  the  head  of  his 
own  table,  entertaining  on  his  own  ship,  D'Arcy 
thought  of  another  Captain  Amyas  who  had  be- 
longed to  that  very  Service  which  he  was  outside 
forever,  and  a  pang  went  through  him  at  the  sight 
of  the  double  gold  braid  with  the  curl  on  the  cuff — 
the  anchor  amidst  the  oak -leaves  on  the  caps  lying 
on  a  further  table,  in  place  of  a  Company  badge — 
the  forbidden  buttons — all  the  little  differences 
which  culminated  in  the  empty  sword-belts.  He 
had  accomplished  his  own  boyish  ambition, — to  be 
Captain  Amyas  on  a  Liner,  and  that  such  a  one  as 
his  father  should  admire — but  he  was  outside  the 
pale  of  his  father's  traditions  all  the  same.  He 
could  never  touch  that  esprit-de-corps  of  the  Royal 
Navy  which  with  his  fatal  intuition  he  surmised ;  he 
was  a  Merchantman — Master,  and  not  Captain,  for 
all  the  courtesy  title — and  coarsened  and  hardened 
by  experiences  of  which  these  men,  with  all  their 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  147 

training,  knew  nothing.  He  saw  the  difference  be- 
tween himself  and  them  in  every  clean  line  of  the 
strong  self-restrained  faces.  Splendid  fellows  these 
Naval  men,  silent  and  resourceful,  gentlemen  born 
and  bred.  Well,  his  had  been  a  rough  life ! — 
rougher  than  his  old  father's,  for  all  his  weather- 
beaten  appearance.  So  he  mused  inwardly,  chat- 
ting with  the  Flag-Captain  meanwhile,  a  splendid 
figure  enough  himself,  in  his  own  costly  uniform. 

The  Duchess  was  by  no  means  full  when  she 
sailed  out  of  Cape  Town  Docks,  but  she  had  a 
greater  number  of  passengers  than  would  probably 
have  fallen  to  the  lot  of  any  other  Captain  of  the 
Line.  Amyas  knew  his  own  popularity,  and  to  a 
certain  extent  it  pleased  him.  He  was  ambitious  in 
his  own  groove,  and  exerted  himself  to  the  scope 
that  his  life  allowed  him,  without  recognizing  that 
the  kudos  that  he  gained  was,  after  all,  superficial. 
He  was  a  man  who  thought  a  good  deal  too,  and 
knew  the  theory  of  his  profession  as  well  as  the 
actual  experience  of  every  day  and  its  duties — an 
experience  which  differed  materially  from  all  theo- 
ries, as  he  had  found  long  ago.  In  bygone  watches 
under  tropic  stars,  when  the  ship  was  going  steadily, 
he  had  thought  out  and  set  in  order  many  opinions 
gathered  at  his  own  and  other  men's  cost,  and  since 
he  had  been  a  Master  he  had  put  them  into  form 
and  once  or  twice  had  seen  them  in  print.  He  was, 
however,  rather  diffident  of  his  own  powers  in  this 
line,  and  few  people  knew  of  his  achievement. 
Had  he  been  bolder  he  could  probably  have  com- 


148  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

manded  a  larger  public,  but  the  very  intuition  and 
quickness  of  perception  which  had  enabled  him  to 
grasp  the  weak  points  of  his  "  calling,"  as  Miles 
had  styled  it,  had  also  shown  him  the  hopelessness 
of  endeavouring  to  influence  the  majority  of  his 
fellows.  "  All  we  like  sheep  have  gone  astray ! "  is 
the  anthem  of  the  Merchant  Service,  and  the  own- 
ers pray  that  their  servants  may  long  retain  the 
flock-like  quality  which  forbids  the  combination  of 
which  Amyas  had  spoken.  He  was  amongst  a 
minority  who  would  have  helped  his  Service  if  he 
could,  being  free  from  the  handicap  of  a  wife  and 
family  ;  but  he  saw,  with  his  fatal  clear-sightedness, 
that  his  fellows  would  not  be  grateful.  Therefore 
he  kept  his  achievements  in  the  background,  and 
wrote  merely  for  the  necessity  that  was  sometimes 
in  him. 

Long  ago  Lady  Arthur  Hyde  had  called  him  a 
literary  man  by  instinct ;  possibly  she  was  wide  of 
the  mark,  but  she  had  judged  rightly  in  discerning 
a  certain  jumble  of  artistic  qualities  in  Amyas. 
Perhaps  it  was  more  a  taste  for  the  arts,  and  an  ap- 
preciation of  them,  than  an  absolute  talent,  but  the 
inheritance  undoubtedly  came  from  his  mother  and 
had  a  glint  of  genius.  Ruby  Lyston  had  be- 
queathed the  enthusiasms  of  her  nature  to  her  son 
— perhaps  also  some  of  the  self-indulgence  and 
weakness  of  the  "  artistic  temperament,"  the  avowed 
possession  of  which  is  almost  always  the  excuse  for 
the  baser  instincts.  D'Arcy's  mother  was  the  first 
woman  who  played  him  false  by  weakening  her  own 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  149 

character,  the  which  reappeared  in  him  to  be  as- 
sailed by  temptations  she  had  never  known. 
D'Arcy  himself  had  never  lost  his  taste  for  draw- 
ing ;  he  kept  a  private  log,  and  a  still  more  private 
memorandum  book,  and  both  were  illustrated — the 
former  with  sketches  of  anything  he  saw  or  heard 
that  struck  him  as  more  explanatory  than  mere 
words,  the  latter  with  likenesses  of  the  people  he 
met  in  his  comings  and  goings  round  the  world. 
There  was  naturally  a  preponderance  of  women,  but 
the  sketches  were  clever  enough  to  have  delighted 
a  connoisseur  had  one  ever  got  hold  of  the  book. 

It  chanced  that  the  Duchess  left  Table  Bay  in  the 
teeth  of  a  nor' west  gale  that  was  exceptional  even 
for  the  time  of  year.  There  was  a  sea  running  that 
would  have  made  a  more  cautious  man  remain  in 
shelter  until  the  hardest  had  blown  over;  but 
Amyas  had  a  dislike  of  being  thwarted  by  the  ele- 
ments which  he  had  spent  his  life  in  learning  to 
circumvent.  The  Duchess  left  harbour  at  the  hour 
advertised,  though  by  the  time  she  reached  Robben 
Island  she  was  shipping  seas  that  drove  every  one 
from  the  decks.  The  comfort  of  the  passengers  in 
a  boat  of  her  class  was  not,  however,  materially 
altered  by  having  to  get  below.  The  smoking-room 
was  aft,  and  still  available ;  and  the  ladies  on  board 
dived  into  their  trunks,  with  the  result  that  the 
saloon  was  unusually  decorative  that  night  in  spite 
of  the  fiddles  on  the  tables. 

Amyas  was  present  at  the  beginning  of  dinner ; 
it  was  a  custom  of  his  to  start  the  meal,  though  he 


ISO  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

usually  slipped  away  after  the  first  course  to  look 
after  his  ship.  His  presence  was  intangibly  reas- 
suring to  his  passengers,  and  as  he  rallied  this  one 
or  that  on  being  a  poor  sailor,  or  exerted  himself  to 
distract  their  thoughts  from  the  rough  weather, 
there  was  insensibly  a  quicker  note  in  the  conver- 
sation— a  fillip  to  the  social  atmosphere.  The  soup 
had  gone  round,  with  many  jokes  as  to  its  dangers, 
and  narrow  escapes  from  unwelcome  immersions, 
and  the  Captain  was  telling  an  anecdote  of  a  former 
voyage  and  a  new  steward. 

"  The  fellow  hadn't  got  his  sea-legs,  and,  by 
Jove  !  he  drenched  three  ladies  with  Julienne  before 
he  gave  it  up  as  a  bad  job.  There  would  come  a 
sudden  lurch,  and  then " 

He  stopped  suddenly,  for  it  seemed  as  if  the  ship 
had  given  a  practical  illustration  of  his  words. 
There  was  indeed  a  lurch — something  else,  too — a 
crash  from  the  engine-room,  and  a  jarring  vibration 
so  distinctly  different  to  the  former  pitching  of  the 
ship  that  there  was  instant  silence.  The  talk 
throughout  the  saloon  ceased  as  if  every  one  had 
been  stricken  dumb ;  there  was  a  flicker  of  move- 
ment down  the  rows  of  chairs,  but  it  died,  and  the 
occupants  sat  still  again,  with  asking  faces  turned 
to  the  head  of  the  table. 

Amyas  had  risen  quietly  and  left  the  saloon  when 
the  vibration  had  hardly  ceased.  It  lasted  about 
five  seconds — five  awful  seconds  to  those  who  could 
surmise  nothing,  bad  enough  for  the  Master  who 
knew,  as  the  vibration  ceased  and  the  ship  began  to 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  151 

roil  heavily,  that  she  had  swung  broadside  on  to 
the  sea  then  running.  When  he  reached  the  deck 
he  paused  for  a  second  to  draw  his  breath.  The 
old  sickening  fear  was  clawing  at  his  heart  and 
making  him  gasp ;  the  next  instant  it  had  passed, 
and  his  nerves  were  strung  like  steel.  He  hoped  he 
had  not  changed  colour,  for  some  one  might  have 
noticed  it. 

Down  below  among  the  engines  the  blow  had 
been  hardly  less  sudden  or  comprehensible.  By  an 
"  inter-r-r-position  of  Providence,"  the  Chief  Engi- 
neer always  said,  he  had  come  down  into  the  engine- 
room  to  speak  to  his  Second,  when  he  should  have 
snatched  a  few  minutes  to  get  something  to  eat. 
The  two  men  had  met  on  the  starting  platform,  but 
before  they  had  time  to  exchange  a  word  there 
came  that  terrific  craunch  and  jar  which  had  startled 
the  saloon.  If  it  was  audible  above,  it  was  much 
more  noticeable  here  so  near  the  scene  of  the  acci- 
dent, and  by  natural  instinct  the  two  men  sprang 
forward  without  losing  a  moment,  the  Chief  shut- 
ting the  throttle,  while  the  Second  handled  the  re- 
versing gear.  The  presence  of  both  men  on  that 
particular  spot  at  the  moment  was  a  freak  of  for- 
tune that  probably  saved  the  ship,  for  had  they 
been  further  off  they  might  have  been  just  too  late ; 
even  as  it  was  the  way  on  the  ship  and  the  momen- 
tum of  the  machinery  carried  the  shaft  round  in  a 
few  more  crashing,  jarring  revolutions.  The  Duch- 
ess was  a  small  ship,  comparatively  speaking — some 
4,300  tons  only — and  her  gear  was  more  easily 


152  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

manipulated  than  if  she  had  been  one  of  the  giants 
of  the  Line ;  the  damage  was  bad  enough  as  it  was, 
but  a  further  delay  in  stopping  the  engines  would 
have  led  to  consequences  which  none  of  the  men 
present  cared  to  think  about.  The  fourth  Engineer 
had  joined  his  two  superiors  as  soon  as  he  could 
get  there,  but  there  had  been  no  time  to  exchange 
more  than  a  few  hurried  words — the  briefest  orders 
as  to  water-tight  doors,  etc.,  as  soon  as  the  Chief 
saw  that  the  engines  had  stopped,  and  then  while 
one  man  stayed  to  shut  up  the  valves,  the  others 
made  a  rush  for  the  shaft  tunnel.  It  did  not  take  a 
practised  eye  long  to  discover  what  had  happened, 
and  by  the  time  that  Amyas  was  out  of  the  saloon, 
his  Chief  Engineer  was  coming  up  on  deck  to  re- 
port to  him,  leaving  his  subordinates  to  oppose  the 
rush  of  water  which  threatened  to  flood  the  tunnel. 

They  met  at  the  door  of  the  engine-room — that 
palpitating  section  of  the  ship  where  her  heart 
seemed  to  be,  and  which  was  as  silent  now  as 
though  it  had  ceased  to  beat. 

"  What's  the  matter  ?  "  said  Amyas  hoarsely. 

"  Stern  shaft  gone,  sir — gone  in  the  stern 
tube,"  gasped  the  Engineer.  "  We  can't  get  at 
it!" 

"  D'  you  mean  that  it's  out  of  reach  ?  Can't  you 
get  at  it  to  mend  it — patch  it  up  somehow  ?  " 

"  Mend  it !  We  shall  be  damned  glad  to  shore  it 
up  and  keep  the  water  out.  It's  nearly  torn  the 
sides  out  of  her  at  the  stern,  and  the  water  was 
pouring  in.  We  can  shut  the  tunnel  water-tight 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  153 

door,  but  I  should  like  to  shore  it  and  wedge  it  up 
a  bit  first." 

A  strong  Scotch  accent  did  not  make  the  Engi- 
neer more  understandable  when  agitated,  but  the 
burring  syllables  were  only  too  plain  in  the  mean- 
ing they  conveyed  to  D'Arcy. 

"  We're  some  hours  out  from  Cape  Town,"  he 
said.  "  I  shall  sail  her  in." 

The  Scotchman  looked  dubious.  Engines  were 
his  religion,  and  he  looked  on  sails  as  a  heathen 
creed.  "  Well,  sir,"  he  said,  "  let  me  have  a  good 
try  to  secure  the  shaft  before  you  get  any  way  on 
the  ship.  The  propeller  must  not  turn  if  we  can 
help  it." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Amyas  shortly.  "  I'll  send 
you  down  Chips  and  some  scantling  and  hands  to 
help  you.  Let  me  know  when  you  are  through." 

He  turned  away,  leaving  the  masters  of  the 
engines  to  finish  their  work  before  he  began  his. 
The  decision  to  sail  had  been  a  sudden  one  which 
his  overwrought  brain  seemed  to  beat  out  and 
grasp  before  he  could  have  conceived  it  under 
ordinary  circumstances ;  but  unless  he  could  get  a 
tow  he  became  more  and  more  convinced  that  im- 
mediate action  of  some  sort  was  necessary.  The 
engineers  had  got  to  work  with  the  fervour  of  their 
professional  instinct.  By  the  aid  of  shores  and 
screw-jacks  against  the  coupling-bolts  the  shaft  was 
secured ;  but  the  chief  difficulty  was  to  stop  the 
rush  of  water  through  the  broken  stern  gland.  The 
proverbial  nigger,  however,  does  not  work  like  the 


154  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

men  who  were  in  charge  of  the  Duchess'  engines, 
and  in  a  few  hours  a  coffer-dam  of  wood,  bricks, 
cement,  and  any  material  that  was  available  (they 
would  have  taken  the  tinware  from  the  galley,  and 
broken  up  the  passengers'  trunks  had  they  been 
allowed),  was  built  up  round  the  stern  gland,  and 
the  Chief  Engineer,  streaked  like  a  zebra,  stood 
back  and  regarded  his  finished  work  with  the  eye 
of  a  creator.  He  was  caked  with  dirt  and  sweat, 
for  he  had  worked  side  by  side  with  his  men,  after 
the  manner  of  his  class,  who  say  simply  that  if  a 
thing  is  to  be  well  done  you  must  not  hesitate  to  do 
it  yourself;  but  he  was  proud  of  his  coffer-dam 
(amongst  the  materials  of  which  were  a  good  many 
imprecatory  "  Damns ! "  from  his  boys),  and  was 
ready  to  vouch  that  the  bricks  and  boards  and 
stuffing  which  he  had  used  as  a  barricade  would 
resist  the  water  until  the  ship 'was  safely  in  dry 
dock,  though  he  would  have  been  happier  with 
twenty-four  hours'  more  hard  work  and  a  splice  in 
the  shaft.  Those  under  him,  however,  drew  a  long 
breath  of  relief  when  he  reported  to  the  Captain, 
who  had  bound  him  down  to  the  shortest  time  in 
which  the  work  could  be  accomplished  safely ;  but 
for  some  time  afterwards  he  was  seen  disconsolately 
wandering  amongst  his  quiet  engines,  looking  with 
the  eye  of  a  parent  to  see  if  the  jar  of  the  breakage 
had  displaced  or  strained  anything  of  the  delicate 
constitution  of  his  beloved  eccentrics.  He  was 
jealous  for  every  denizen  in  his  domain,  from  his 
great  jacketed  cylinders  and  thrust-blocks,  to  the 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  155 

split-pin  of  his  counter-rod ;  but  thanks  to  his  own 
promptness  in  shutting  off  steam  his  darlings  had 
escaped.  It  was  the  frame  of  the  ship  which  had 
suffered — a  sore  enough  point  with  him  as  things 
were ;  so  had  the  shaft,  and  he  felt  in  the  position 
of  a  general  with  plenty  of  ammunition  and  guns 
at  his  disposal — but  the  latter  were  spiked.  His 
engines  were  untouched,  ready  for  their  duty, 
which  was  to  turn  the  shaft  .  .  .  and  that  was 
broken  ! 

But  the  engineer's  necessity  is  the  sailor's  oppor- 
tunity. Perhaps  from  old  association,  or  the  belief 
in  real  seamanship  which  lingers  long  in  the  minds 
of  men  trained  out  of  steamers,  Amyas  had  always 
been  particular  to  have  his  sails  properly  bent  and 
fit  for  setting.  The  foreyard  on  the  Duchess  was 
ninety -seven  feet  long,  and  carried  topsail  and  fore- 
sail in  proportion ;  with  these,  and  the  foretopmast- 
staysail,  he  meant  to  see  what  could  be  done,  though 
the  drag  of  the  still  propeller  was  a  drawback. 
When  he  got  back  on  the  bridge  after  speaking  to 
the  Engineer  he  was  met  by  his  Chief  Officer,  who 
explained  that,  knowing  by  the  vibration  that  the 
shaft  had  gone,  he  had  put  the  helm  hard  to  star- 
board, in  order  to  turn  the  ship's  head  to  sea,  and 
away  from  land;  his  suggestion  was  that,  as  the 
ship  was  in  danger  of  drifting  on  to  a  lee  shore, 
they  should  endeavour  to  anchor,  and  await  rescue 
by  a  passing  boat. 

"  There  must  be  plenty,  one  would  think,  in  these 
latitudes,"  he  remarked  dryly. 


156  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  What,  in  this  weather  ?  "  said  Amyas  signifi- 
cantly. He  had  listened  quietly,  as  his  custom 
was ;  but  while  taking  the  opinion  of  other  men, 
he  had  a  habit  of  forming  and  sticking  to  his  own. 
"  The  engineers  say  that  the  mischief  is  in  the  stern 
tube — no  chance  of  patchin'  her  up,  or,  unfor- 
tunately, of  uncouplin'  the  shaft,  which  would  help 
us.  But  I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  sail  the  ship 
by  shortest  route  to  Table  Bay,  and  I'll  take  the 
chances  as  they  come." 

"  I  don't  see  how  we  are  to  get  her  before  the 
wind,  sir,"  remonstrated  the  Chief  Officer,  as  dubi- 
ously as  the  Engineer  had  done.  "  It's  a  risky 
operation  seeing  that  we  are  running  for  a  dead  lee 
shore ! " 

"  It  is  my  risk  anyhow,"  said  D'Arcy,  and  his 
face  fell  into  the  old  lines  with  which  he  faced  a 
difficulty  in  the  way  of  his  desire.  "  You  can  do 
as  you  are  told.  Send  your  men  aloft  with  instruc- 
tions to  cut  the  gaskets  of  the  topsail  and  foresail 
directly  you  give  them  the  order,  and  get  every 
man  on  the  ship  stationed,  when  the  time  comes,  to 
set  those  sails  smartly." 

"  We  haven't  enough  men  to  do  it,  sir  ! " 

"  The  passengers  must  help,"  said  Amyas  coolly. 
"  They  can  pull  on  a  rope,  if  they  don't  understand 
why.  Before  you  send  your  men  to  stations,  Mr. 
Cartright,  pass  the  biggest  wire  hawser  you  have 
from  aft  for'ard,  and  make  it  fast  to  your  starboard 
cable ;  then  unshackle  from  the  anchor,  and  tell  the 
carpenter  to  go  below  into  the  chain  locker  and  un- 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  157 

shackle  the  chain  at  the  thirty-fathom  shackle.  Do 
you  understand  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir."  Mr.  Cartright  understood  one  thing 
— that  argument  was  wasted,  and  perhaps  slightly 
dangerous.  He  wished  himself  well  out  of  the 
Duchess  and  under  a  man  less  given  to  experiments 
in  trusting  to  his  own  judgment!  But  he  felt  a 
perfectly  new  respect  for  Amyas  as  he  turned  away 
to  carry  out  his  orders  ;  his  contempt  for  his  private 
character  had  threatened  to  obscure  his  view  of 
him  as  a  sailor,  but  he  recognized  the  nervous 
strength  of  the  Shipmaster  whose  confidence  in 
himself  could  rise  to  sudden  heights  of  this 
sort. 

"  When  you  have  done  all  that  you  can,  let  me 
know,"  said  D'Arcy  quietly,  and  that  surprised 
Cartright  more  than  anything.  "  He  was  as 
deuced  composed  as  if  he  were  giving  an  order 
in  harbour ! "  he  said,  when  speaking  of  it  after- 
wards. 

It  was  no  light  task  that  D'Arcy  had  set  him  and 
the  crew.  The  ship  was  rolling  heavily  in  the 
trough  of  the  seas,  and  the  water  was  sweeping  her 
from  one  end  to  the  other ;  but  at  the  end  of  an 
hour  Cartright  came  on  the  bridge  again  with  the 
information  that  the  hawser  was  fast  for'ard  and  the 
chain  ready  for  slipping. 

"  Send  your  men  aloft  then,  as  soon  as  the  en- 
gineers report  that  they  can  do  no  more,"  said 
Amyas.  "  Have  you  given  the  others  their  sta- 
tions ?  " 


158  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  Every  man,"  said  the  Chief  Officer  with  a 
wrinkle  in  his  brow.  "  The  passengers  have  turned 
to  with  a  will — I  think  they  look  on  it  as  rather  a 
godsend  of  an  adventure !  " 

"  I  hope  they  won't  find  it  too  much  of  an  ad- 
venture to  keep  their  feet !  "  said  Amyas  grimly. 
"  The  decks  are  like  a  greased  board." 

As  soon  as  the  shaft  was  secured  the  order  was 
given  to  slip  the  cable,  and  the  thirty  fathoms  of 
chain  at  the  end  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  of  wire 
hawser  dragging  on  the  bottom,  with  the  aid  of  the 
foretopmast-staysail,  gradually  helped  the  ship's 
head  to  pay  off;  round — round  she  went,  while  the 
men  stood  tensely  at  their  stations,  the  volunteers 
slipping  as  the  wet  decks  rolled  beneath  them  ex- 
actly as  Amyas  had  feared.  The  passengers  tried 
to  get  foothold  at  their  unaccustomed  task,  while  it 
seemed  to  them  as  if  the  ship  were  loath  to  obey 
those  guiding  her,  so  long  she  kept  them  at  stretch, 
both  body  and  brain.  Then,  as  by  some  myste- 
rious process  it  seemed,  the  wind  drew  aft,  and  the 
order  was  given  to  cut  the  gaskets  and  set  the  fore- 
sail and  foretopsail.  There  is  something  almost 
like  witchcraft  to  the  lay  mind  in  watching  the 
handling  of  a  big  ship.  The  men  who  had  been 
pressed  into  the  service  hauled  on  the  ropes,  put 
into  their  hands  with  some  outline  in  their  minds 
as  to  the  result ;  but  the  clanging  of  orders  through 
the  wind,  the  heave  of  the  ship  as  she  bestirred 
herself  like  a  human  thing  to  the  urgent  wish  of 
her  commander,  seemed  something  more  than  com- 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  159 

monplace.  When  she  began  to  gather  steerage 
way  the  hawser  and  cable  were  slipped,  but  the  pro- 
peller still  dragged  her  back  and  delayed  her  prog- 
ress, as  it  could  not  turn  in  the  water.  Still  the 
men  worked  to  help  the  ship,  above  and  below ; 
the  broken  shaft  was  in  the  position  of  a  splintered 
bone,  and  the  engineers,  as  doctors,  had  made  it 
their  business  to  prevent  the  bone  from  tearing 
worse  wounds  in  the  ship's  frame ;  had  the  broken 
shaft  continued  that  wrenching  movement  which 
caused  the  vibration  after  the  accident,  the  sides  of 
the  ship  must  have  been  torn  open  at  the  stern 
exactly  as  a  splintered  bone  works  through  flesh. 
They  had  shut  off  steam  and  put  the  reversing  gear 
in  motion  none  too  soon ;  as  it  was,  the  Duchess 
had  a  crippled  appearance  as  her  sails  dragged  her 
through  the  water ;  she  was  making  four  knots  an 
hour  at  best,  the  weather  was  thick  with  drizzling 
rain,  but  "  in  the  face  of  clenched  antagonisms  " 
Captain  Amyas  was  steering  direct  for  Robben 
Island.  It  loomed  up  at  last  right  ahead,  a  sullen 
grey  line  of  coast,  and  for  a  space  the  Master  hesi- 
tated as  to  which  passage  to  take.  Inside  or  out- 
side ?  The  inside  was  nearer,  but  then  it  was  more 
leewardly,  and  there  were  those  lives  in  his  keeping 
which  he  knew  in  his  soul  he  had  chosen  to  risk 
because  he  could  trust  his  own  knowledge !  The 
long  strain  was  telling  on  D'Arcy's  nerves,  though 
the  worst  of  the  journey  was  over ;  he  chose  the 
inner  passage,  and  as  the  ship's  head  was  got  in  the 
right  direction  the  weather  began  to  clear  and  the 


160  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

wind  came  out  from  the  sou'west.  It  was  blowing 
hard,  but  it  enabled  them  to  get  the  main  and  miz- 
zen  trysails  set,  and  a  greater  control  of  the  ship. 
The  speed  was  improved  too,  and  without  further 
mishap  she  swung  round  the  end  of  the  breakwater, 
and  the  anchor  was  let  go  in  smooth  water.  But 
the  winds  had  their  spite  on  the  man  who  had 
balked  them  after  all,  for  as  the  canvas  was  being 
got  in  there  came  a  squall  like  a  child's  burst  of 
rage  at  its  own  impotence,  and  the  sails  which  had 
stood  D'Arcy  Amyas  in  such  good  stead  were  car- 
ried away  in  flying  fragments. 

"Just  about  too  late!"  said  D'Arcy,  laughing. 
He  was  satisfied  to  have  accomplished  his  boast  and 
brought  his  ship  into  Table  Bay.  The  winds  were 
but  as  children  to  his  man's  cunning. 

The  story  flew  round  the  docks,  and  Savernakes' 
agent  came  through  from  Durban  and  went  on 
board  to  learn  the  truth  and  cable  it  home.  The 
Duchess  had  broken  down  three  hours  from  Cape 
Town,  and  Captain  Amyas  had  sailed  her  back,  ac- 
cepting the  risks  consequent  on  the  gale  then  blow- 
ing and  the  boat's  disabled  condition.  There  was 
a  supper  on  board  that  night,  for  the  passengers, 
now  that  the  danger  was  over,  were  eager  to  lionize 
the  man  who  had  brought  them  safely  back  to  port, 
and  drank  his  health  in  champagne  that  flowed  like 
water. 

"  It  seems  to  me,  Captain  Amyas,"  the  agent  ven- 
tured to  say,  "  that  you  ran  great  risks  !  " 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  I  know  my  business  better 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  161 

than  any  landsman  can  know  it ! "  Amyas  replied 
coolly.  "  And  if  I'm  Master  of  a  steamer,  I'm  also 
a  seaman." 

And  the  voice  of  criticism  was  silenced. 


CHAPTER  XI 

"  Who  cares  ?     I'll  make  a  clean  breast  once  for  all ! 
Besides,  you've  heard  the  gossip.     My  life  long 
I've  been  a  woman-liker — liking  means 
Loving  and  so  on.     There's  a  lengthy  list 
By  this  time  I  shall  have  to  answer  for  — 
So  say  the  good  folk :  and  they  don't  guess  half." 

ROBERT  BROWNING 

"  HANSOM  !  "  said  Mr.  Savernake. 

The  cab  drew  up  at  the  kerb  outside  the  great 
shipping  office,  and  the  gentleman  got  in.  He 
looked  singularly  immaculate  for  a  business  man  in 
the  City,  but  the  destination  he  gave  his  driver  was 
not  the  West  End — it  was  Waterloo.  As  the  han- 
som wound  in  and  out  from  Aldgate,  Strandwards, 
and  he  leaned  back  and  looked  absently  at  the 
stream  of  vehicles  and  foot-passengers  passing  him, 
his  clean-cut  face  was  very  deep  in  thought. 

At  Waterloo  he  made  his  way  to  the  far  side 
where  a  special  for  Southampton  waited,  and  there 
on  the  platform  he  spotted  a  group  whose  attire 
was  as  his  own.  There  were  perhaps  half-a-dozen 
men  and  three  ladies,  and  the  latter  were  women 
whose  position  in  Society  was  by  no  means  insig- 
nificant. Savernake  raised  his  hat,  and  one  of  the 
men  hailed  him. 

"  Ha,  Savernake !    Going  down  to  the  luncheon  ?  " 

"  Yes."  Mr.  Savernake  nodded  and  shook  hands 
162 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  163 

with  a  pretty,  fair  woman  in  palest  grey.  "  I  am 
glad  you  are  going  to  honour  us,  Lady  Buck- 
minster." 

"  Oh,  I  love  a  '  maiden-voyage '  luncheon !  I 
would  not  miss  it  for  worlds.  And  your  boats  are 
such  beauties  !  I  am  looking  forward  to  seeing  her. 
What  is  she  called  ?  " 

"  The  Princess.  I  hope  you  will  travel  in  her 
some  day." 

"  I  should  be  charmed.  Oh  yes,  Lord  Buck- 
minster  must  certainly  take  me  out  for  a  trip. 
Every  one  goes  to  Africa  nowadays,  don't  they  ?  " 

"  Fortunately  for  us  !  " 

"  And  I  hear  your  Captain  is  such  a  charming 
man,  and  just  a  leetle  bit  naughty  !  " 

"  Where  did  you  hear  that,  Lady  Buckminster  ?  " 

"  Eh  ?  Oh,  I  don't  know !  Some  one  must  have 
said  it.  But  I'm  quite  looking  forward  to  making 
his  acquaintance.  What  is  his  name  ?  " 

"  Captain  Amyas.  He  is  an  excellent  seaman, 
and  I  believe  a  gentleman.  His  father  was  in  the 
Navy.  For  the  rest,  we  will  hope  it  is  not  as  you 
say." 

"  Oh,  but  I  don't  hope  anything  of  the  sort !  It 
makes  it  all  so  much  more  interesting."  And  the 
Countess  of  Buckminster  picked  up  her  dainty  skirts 
and  was  handed  into  a  first-class  carriage  of  the 
waiting  train. 

The  heat  was  almost  tropical  in  Southampton, 
and  summer  blazed  down  on  the  Empress  Dock 
where  the  new  ship  was  berthed.  Even  in  the 


164  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

cramping  quarters  of  the  dock  she  was  beautiful  to 
look  upon,  spick  and  span  from  stem  to  stern,  and 
every  noble  line  of  her  a  masterpiece  of  the  great 
firm  who  had  built  her  for  Savernakes'.  She  was 
fine-drawn  as  a  yacht,  but  just  as  powerful  as  if  her 
bows  had  bulged  in  the  hideous  Belfast  fashion,  and 
her  four  funnels  had  the  slight  "  raking  aft "  ap- 
pearance, even  when  she  was  at  rest,  that  gave  an 
impression  of  going  full  steam  ahead.  On  board 
her  law  and  order  kept  watch  over  the  festivities  of 
the  day,  and  the  arrangements  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  the  guests  seemed  to  go  on  oiled  wheels. 
There  were  masses  of  hothouse  flowers  banked 
down  the  long  tables,  and  the  saloon  was  decorated, 
and  the  champagne  was  unlimited,  for  the  Princess 
would  start  on  her  first  voyage  at  four  o'clock  that 
day.  By  special  arrangement  the  passengers  who 
were  brought  down  by  the  usual  mail  train  were 
lunched  at  the  Sou'western,  and  did  not  come  on 
board  until  three  o'clock  ;  for  until  that  time  the 
new  boat  was  to  be  kept  sacred  to  the  favoured  few 
— in  themselves  a  goodly  number — who  were  in- 
vited to  the  "  sending-off"  luncheon. 

Bernard  Savernake,  as  he  dropped  into  his  seat, 
looked  up  the  long  table  with  keen  interest  at  the 
man  sitting  at  its  head.  There  had  been  no  chance 
for  him  to  make  his  observations  in  the  general 
confusion  of  greeting  when  the  guests  first  came  on 
board,  but  he  had  in  his  mind  the  picture  of  a  slim, 
bare-legged  boy,  with  rough  hair  and  earnest  eyes, 
and  he  wanted  to  compare  it  with  the  present  de- 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  165 

velopment  of  that  memory.  What  he  saw  was  a 
big  fair  man  in  the  Company's  uniform,  almost  un- 
recognizable save  for  a  curious  narrowness  at  the 
corners  of  the  eyes.  Savernake  looked  at  the  burnt, 
bearded  face — the  close-cut  yellow  hair,  which  was 
smooth  and  glossy  as  the  hide  of  some  animal  in 
perfect  health — the  nervous  features — and  he  seemed 
almost  puzzled.  Captain  Amyas  was  so  utterly 
altered,  even  from  any  hint  of  his  boyhood,  that 
Savernake  felt  unable  to  form  an  idea  of  his  char- 
acter. He  was  speaking  to  Lady  Arthur  Hyde, 
who  was  sitting  on  his  right,  and  Mr.  Savernake 
saw  nothing  in  his  expression  but  great  respect  and 
courtesy.  "  The  fellow  has  rather  pretty  manners," 
he  thought. 

"  It  seems  a  long  time  since  we  met,"  Amyas  was 
saying. 

"  A  very  long  time,"  Lady  Arthur  answered 
steadily.  "  You  have  risen  in  your  profession." 

"  Through  the  favour  of  my  patron  saint !  " 

"  Do  you  worship  fickle  fortune  ?  " 

"  I  have  a  private  shrine  where  I  lay  offerings, 
Lady  Arthur.  But  it  is  too  sacred  for  public  men- 
tion !  " 

Lady  Arthur  lifted  her  glass  and  drank  a  silent 
toast.  "  I  have  wished  you  luck  ! "  she  said. 

"  Then  I  go  out  with  the  certainty  of  a  successful 
trip  !  "  he  said,  smiling. 

Later  on  the  Captain  was  called  upon  to  answer 
a  toast.  Savernake  saw  him  rise,  and  leaned  back 
in  his  chair.  He  did  not  expect  this  Lothario  of 


166  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

the  seas  to  be  nervous,  and  the  speech  did  not  in- 
terest him.  The  first  few  words  were  slightly 
slurred  as  if  the  speaker  were  getting  his  energies 
together.  Then  a  sentence  rose  louder  in  a  soft 
hoarse  tone  of  deeper  feeling. 

" and  to  any  one  knowin'  the  seas "  said 

D'Arcy. 

Mr.  Savernake  sat  up,  his  face  galvanized  into  in- 
terest. The  little  boy  in  the  fisherman's  jersey  was 
before  him  again,  speaking  with  this  same  soft 
choked  accent  as  the  bearded  man  at  the  head  of 
the  table.  Voices  do  not  lie  if  they  have  any  dis- 
tinguishing quality ;  they  retain  it  as  mouths  do 
their  curves — but  D'Arcy's  mouth  was  hidden. 

"  I  wonder,"  said  Mr.  Savernake  to  himself, 
"  whether  he  still  wants  things  '  so  much,'  and  if  he 
obtains  them,  and  who  suffers  ?  " 

The  guests  went  the  round  of  the  ship  after  lunch, 
as  was  inevitable.  D'Arcy  was  host,  but  the  Direc- 
tors knew  as  much  of  the  obvious  points  of  the 
Princess  as  he,  and  took  some  of  the  personal  ex- 
planations off  his  shoulders.  For  a  moment  he 
found  himself  alone,  in  his  own  cabin,  with  Lady 
Arthur  Hyde.  They  stood  looking  into  each  oth- 
er's eyes  in  the  shaded  space,  while  the  sunlight 
danced  on  the  decks  outside. 

"  I  should  hardly  have  known  you  !  "  she  breathed. 

"  I  should  have  known  you — anywhere  !  "  he  an- 
swered. "  You  will  never  change." 

"  Nonsense !  It  is  fifteen  years.  I  am  an  old 
woman." 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  "  167 

"  You  are  my  good  angel,  and  I  believe  you  al- 
ways will  be  !  "  he  said,  stretching  out  his  hands  to 
her.  She  laid  her  own  soft  palms  in  them  lightly, 
and  looked  at  him  with  eyes  which  were  half  ten- 
der, half  regretful. 

"  How  you  have  broadened — and  how  a  beard 
alters  you !  I  see  hardly  anything  of  the  boy  I 
knew.  I  wonder  why  I  have  never  forgotten 
you?" 

"  No  merit  of  my  own,  I  am  afraid." 

"  Something — I  never  knew  what — made  me 
tender  to  you  always,  even  in  memory,  all  these 
years.  Captain  A  my  as " 

"  It  used  to  be  D'Arcy  !  " 

"  Ah !  but  not  to  this  big  important  person,  in 
charge  of  our  largest  ship  !  "  She  laid  her  hand 
lightly  on  the  gold  lace  on  his  sleeve.  If  Saver- 
nakes'  uniform  had  a  fault  it  was  the  preponder- 
ance of  gold  lace,  but  few  denied  that  it  was  be- 
coming. 

"  I  have  heard  stories  of  you  !  "  she  said.  "  Not 
your  prowess — I  don't  mean  that.  I  was  proud  of 
you  then ! " 

"  What  were  the  stories  about?" 

"  Hardly  stories  perhaps — hints.  You  are  too 
fond  of  women's  society  !  " 

He  hesitated  an  instant,  searching  her  face.  Here 
was  a  subtle  danger  with  which  it  took  all  his  skill 
to  cope.  She  was  looking  down,  and  he  could 
study  her  at  leisure.  A  grey  thread  in  her  brown 
hair  was  perhaps  discernible,  an  added  line  round 


168  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

her  mouth  and  eyes — but  her  beauty  seemed  im- 
mortal for  all  that. 

"Do  you  wish  me  to  justify  myself ?"  he  said. 
"  I  have  no  excuses  to  make — I  wish  for  none. 
You  know  where  my  heart  lies  !  " 

She  flashed  up  at  him  under  her  dark  lashes. 
The  look  asked  a  question,  probed  him,  betrayed 
her  little  vulnerable  point. 

"  As  long  as  you  miss  your  heart  your  good  angel 
is  likely  to  take  good  care  of  it — and  you ! "  she 
said  tremulously.  Then  she  added  softly,  "  As  a 
woman  may ! " 

"  As  a  woman  has  done  ! "  he  said,  stooping  to 
kiss  her  hand  daintily.  "  Lady  Arthur " 

"  It  used  to  be  Clare  !  " 

"  It  always  is — in  my  heart !  I  want  to  know, 
would  it  be  possible  for  you  to  sail  with  me  again  ? 
Oh,  do ! " 

"  I  don't  know — I  do  not  like  to  say.  I  will  ac- 
knowledge that  I  should  perhaps — like  it !  Hush, 
there  is  some  one  coming !  How  long  it  seems 
since  we  had  a  talk  together !  " 

"  Ah  !  those  moonlight  nights  in  the  tropics,  the 
wind  hardly  stirrin'  the  curtain  over  our  doorway, 
and  your  head  on  my " 

"  I  have  no  more  to  say,"  she  interrupted  hur- 
riedly, "  except  what  I  have  practically  said.  I  am 
true  to  those  who  are  true  to  me  !  " 

She  stepped  out  of  the  cabin  and  joined  the  other 
guests,  D'Arcy  following.  Her  smile  was  the  sweet- 
est, her  laugh  the  least  disturbed,  of  the  whole  party. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  169 

Mr.  Savernake  thought  that  the  Captain  seemed  a 
little  abstracted  as  he  took  Lord  Arthur  Hyde  and 
himself  up  on  to  the  bridge,  and  talked  of  the  boat's 
beauties  and  virtues. 

"  It  is  a  fortunate  thing  that  I  have  no  desire  or 
intention  to  marry,"  thought  D'Arcy  Amyas. 
"  However  established  one's  position,  it  is  never  safe 
to  quarrel  with  a  clever  woman  who  has  power  in 
her  hands  !  " 

"  I  am  exceedingly  glad  to  see  you  Master  of  this 
ship,  Captain  Amyas,"  said  Lord  Arthur,  fumbling 
after  an  elusive  glass  to  fix  it  in  his  eye.  "  Exceed- 
ingly glad  !  There  was  some  talk  of — of  another 
name,  as  you  may  have  heard.  I  do  not  mind  tell- 
ing you  that  I  should  have  been  quite  put  out  if  the 
Directors  had  not  agreed  with  me  that  a  man  who 
had  proved  himself  as  capable  as  yourself  in 
the  face  of  danger  was  the  right  one  on  this 
bridge!" 

D'Arcy  did  know  that  his  appointment  had  hung 
in  the  balance — he  knew  too  the  man  he  had  dis- 
placed. The  whole  Company  had  hummed  when 
he  was  given  the  Princess  over  the  heads  of  his 
seniors,  and  he  knew  it.  Furthermore,  he  did  not 
care.  Things  would  settle  down  later.  He  might 
be  hated,  but  no  hatred  could  deny  his  proven 
powers,  and — he  knew  that  Lord  Arthur  would  be 
moulded  into  really  thinking  of  him  as  he  had  just 
spoken,  and  that  the  most  influential  men  on  board 
would  stand  his  friends.  He  thanked  the  Chair- 
man suitably  and  well — neither  too  much  nor  too 


i/o  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

little.  And  Bernard  Savernake  stood  by  and  heard 
it  all. 

"  I  wonder  if  you  remember  me,  Captain  Amyas  ?  " 
he  said  after  a  time,  fixing  his  shrewd  grey  eyes  on 
the  Master's  face.  "  I  am  growing  an  old  man,  and 
the  last  time  I  saw  you,  you  were  a  little  boy." 

"  I  am  not  likely  to  forget  my  father's  old  friend, 
Mr.  Savernake,"  Amyas  responded.  He  smiled  as 
he  spoke,  and  a  network  of  wrinkles  gathered  round 
his  eyes — wrinkles  worn  not  by  time,  but  by  facing 
hard  weather  and  staring  straight  ahead  from  the 
bridges  of  many  boats.  Under  the  peak  of  his  cap 
his  eyes  looked  sinister  from  their  peculiar  setting, 
though  he  spoke  in  all  sincerity. 

"  I  dare  say  you  do  not  cherish  the  memory,"  said 
Savernake,  laughing.  "  If  I  recollect  rightly  I  was 
doing  my  best  to  persuade  your  father  to  keep 
you  off  the  sea,  and  you  regarded  me  as  an  arch- 
enemy." 

"  You  thought  it  a  hard  life,  I  don't  doubt,  in  the 
which  you  knew  more  than  I." 

"  But,"  said  Savernake  curiously, "  you  are  glad  on 
the  whole  that  my  well-meant  advice  was  wasted  ?  " 

D'Arcy's  eyes  wandered  down  the  length  of  the 
ship,  between  the  new  steel  boats  and  the  white 
ventilators,  to  the  dwindling  stern  where  the  blue 
ensign  flew.  A  length  of  some  two  hundred  feet 
stretched  below  him,  where  he  stood  on  the  flying- 
bridge,  and  his  foot  pressed  the  planks  with  an  odd 
thrill — that  sense  of  mysterious  communion  with 
his  ship  which  had  haunted  him  from  the  old  days 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  171 

of  his  first  watches  on  the  Mistress.  He  turned  to 
Savernake  coolly. 

"  It  is  hardly  likely  that  I  should  regret  standing 
as  Captain  on  the  bridge  of  such  a  boat,  Mr.  Saver- 
nake ! " 

"  Good  !  "  said  that  gentleman  frankly.  "  I  offer 
you  my  most  hearty  congratulations  on  that  score. 
But  between  the  boy  who  pitted  his  influence 
against  mine,  and  the  man  who  is  Master  of  this 
boat,  there  stretches  a  lifetime  of  experience,  Cap- 
tain Amyas ! " 

"  Yes,"  D'Arcy  acknowledged  quietly. 

"  That  it  must  have  been  a  hard  experience  I 
know  from  my  own  knowledge  of  the  Service, 
theoretical  only  though  it  is.  The  responsibility  of 
such  a  ship  as  this,  for  instance,  is  not  a  holiday 
task,  I  take  it !  " 

"  It  means  the  care  of  some  fifteen  hundred  lives 
as  a  rule,  and  perhaps  half  a  million's  worth  of  other 
people's  property ! " 

"  Ah  !  .  .  .  And  do  you  still  sketch  ?  "  asked 
Mr.  Savernake,  with  airy  irrelevance. 

"  I  can  illustrate  my  log,"  said  D'Arcy,  laugh- 
ing. 

"  I  should  like  to  possess  that  book.  If  I  were  a 
younger  man  I  would  say  leave  it  to  me  in  your 
will.  It  is  on  the  whole  an  interesting  profession, 
this  you  were  so  determined  to  choose — whether 
illustrated  or  not." 

"  There  is  a  lot  to  be  learned.  I  spent  one  voyage 
among  the  engines,  because  I  wanted  to  pass  in 


i;2  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

steam.  I  doubt  if  you  ever  know  all  there  is  to 
know  about  a  ship,  and  they  all  have  different  ways." 
"  H'm  !  "  said  Mr.  Savernake,  with  his  customary 
dryness.  "  You  are  making  me  look  a  fool  for  my 
prognostications  and  theories,  Captain  Amyas.  I 
am  keeping  you  from  your  guests — I  see  that  Lord 
Arthur  has  already  deserted  us.  But  I  reserve  final 
judgment  till  the  eleventh  hour !  "  he  added  to  him- 
self as  he  followed  D'Arcy  slowly  down  to  the 
promenade  deck. 


CHAPTER  XII 

"  Nice  while  it  lasted,  and  now  it  is  over  — 
Tear  out  your  'eart  an'  good-bye  to  your  lover ! 
What's  the  use  o'  grievin',  when  the  mother  that  bore  you 
(Mary,  pity  women!)  knew  it  all  before  you?" 

RUDYARD  KIPLING 

BY  courtesy  the  Queen  was  known  as  the  flag- 
ship of  Savernakes'  fleet,  and  Captain  Corry — the 
"  parson  "  Captain — was  Commodore.  The  Queen 
was  the  same  tonnage,  or  nearly,  as  the  Princess, 
but  the  latter  had  many  trifling  improvements  on 
the  older  boat,  and  was  on  the  whole  far  more 
popular.  Captain  Amyas  ran  her  to  and  fro  with 
steady  success,  and  though  criticism  as  to  his  per- 
sonal character  certainly  grew  as  time  went  on,  he 
and  the  four  Officers  under  him  were  acknowledged 
as  smart  men,  and  his  boat's  reputation  was  at  least 
as  fast  literally  as  morally. 

It  was  some  five  years  after  the  luncheon  before 
her  maiden  voyage  that  Amyas  was  standing  in  the 
smoking-room  of  Kelway's  at  Southampton,  talking 
to  Captain  Ronny,  when  he  heard  himself  addressed 
by  name.  It  was  one  of  the  freaks  of  Fate  that  he 
should  be  that  day  in  the  queer  little  room  where 
he  had  first  met  the  older  man.  It  was  not  often 
that  they  consorted  thither,  for  Ronny  loved  the 
flesh-pots  of  Egypt,  and  the  lounge  at  the  Sou'- 
western  appealed  to  him  more  than  the  closer 
173 


174  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

quarters  at  Kelway's.  But  it  chanced  that  day  that 
the  great  hotel  was  full  of  Americans,  the  Inter- 
national's mail-boat  starting  on  the  morrow,  and 
Ronny  and  Amyas  could  not  find  a  corner  wherein 
to  exchange  confidences. 

"  Come  over  to  Kelway's,"  Ronny  said  impa- 
tiently. "  It's  empty  at  this  time  of  day,  and  there 

is  so  much  d d  cackle  here  that  I  can't  hear 

myself  speak !  " 

"  The  St.  Louis  will  be  full,"  said  Amyas  briefly, 
as  they  crossed  the  road  into  Queen's  Park.  It  was 
a  voyage  or  so  since  he  had  seen  Captain  Ronny, 
and  there  was  all  the  gossip  of  the  shore  and  sea  to 
exchange.  The  swing  glass  doors  closed  behind 
them,  and  they  made  their  way  without  interrup- 
tion past  the  bar,  down  the  steps,  and  short  to  their 
left.  The  smoking-room  of  Kelway's  had  not 
changed  much  since  Amyas  tried  to  light  his  pipe 
there  years  since,  and  Ronny  had  noted  the  tell-tale 
shaking  of  his  hand  with  his  keen,  merry  eyes. 
There  was  a  piano  across  one  corner,  but  the  sun 
on  the  skylight  showed  the  same  aspect  as  in  the 
good  old  days  when  the  men  of  the  Southampton 
Lines  were  reported  to  play  cards  at  Kelway's  till 
two  in  the  morning,  and  go  aboard  with  empty 
pockets. 

Amyas  had  not  noticed  that  there  was  another 
occupant  in  the  dusk  of  the  further  corner,  but  as 
he  walked  up  to  the  familiar  mantelpiece  he  heard 
his  name.  Turning  to  see  who  had  spoken  he  be- 
came aware  of  a  rugged-faced  man  in  a  pilot  coat, 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  175 

who  seemed  hardly  at  his  ease,  for  he  cleared  his 
throat  once  or  twice  and  spoke  hoarsely. 

"  It  is  D'Arcy  Amyas,  ain't  it  ?  " 

"  Yes."  D'Arcy  turned  right  round,  staring  at 
his  interlocutor  with  a  puzzled  lack  of  recognition. 

"  I  want  to  ask  a  favour  of  you  ! "  said  the  man 
bluntly.  "  My  name's  Benson.  I  shipped  with 
you  a  matter  of  eighteen  years  back  on  the  Mis- 
tress, when  you  were  a  'prentice." 

"  Benson  !  Granfer' !  Of  course  it  is  !  "  said 
D'Arcy,  holding  out  his  hand  cordially.  "  Captain 
Ronny,  this  is  an  old  shipmate  of  mine.  He  taught 
me  how  to  splice  as  I  never  learned  on  the  trainin' 
ship,  and  to  bend  sails.  And,  by  Jove !  didn't  I  get 
licked  if  I  funked  it  at  the  main  royal !  " 

Benson's  grim  face  relaxed  a  little.  He  smiled  in 
a  sidelong  fashion,  as  if  it  were  an  unusual  practice 
with  him  and  the  muscles  were  stiff  with  disuse. 

"  I  dare  say  I  roped  it  into  you  a  bit !  "  he 
said.  "  You've  gone  over  my  head  since  then 
though." 

"  Ah,  but  you  deserted  our  firm  !  "  said  D'Arcy 
lightly.  "  Promotion  was  too  slow  for  you.  What 
are  you  doin'  now,  Benson  ?  " 

"  I'm  Master  of  a  tramp.  She's  a  big  boat  and  a 
steamer.  We  ply  between  here  and  Sydney. 
You've  got  Savernakes'  big  boat,  haven't  you  ?  " 

"  One  of  the  big  ones.     The  Princess" 

"  Well,  what  I  want  to  ask  is  this.  I've  a  little 
girl  just  leaving  school,  and  she's  going  out  to  her 
aunt  at  Bulawayo,  up  country.  Now  we  don't 


176  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

touch  Africa  this  trip,  and  even  if  we  did  I  wouldn't 
like  Cherry  to  rough  it  on  the  Seagull.  I  want 
you  to  take  her  out  in  your  care — I  mean  her  to  go 
like  any  of  the  greatest  ladies,  and  so  I'm  choosing 
Savernakes'  best  boat.  They're  very  generous  to 
me,  and  she's  going  first-class  for  second-class 
fare." 

"  All  right,"  said  D'Arcy,  with  careless  good-na- 
ture. "  Send  her  on  board  on  Saturday,  and  we'll 
look  after  her.  I'll  speak  to  the  stewardess." 

He  did  not  give  the  matter  any  special  attention, 
even  when,  on  Benson  taking  his  ungainly  figure 
out  of  the  room,  Captain  Ronny  began  to  joke  him 
about  his  charge. 

"  Got  a  nice  little  girl  to  look  after  this  trip,  eh, 
D'Arcy  !  "  he  said,  with  his  hearty  laugh.  Captain 
Ronny  was  getting  very  grey,  but  his  eyes  danced 
with  the  devil's  own  mischief  still,  and  his  voice 
boomed  like  a  full,  sound  bell.  "  Gad  !  I  remem- 
ber when  I  used  to  have  girls  sent  me  to  travel '  in 
the  care  of  the  Captain.'  What  ripping  runs  they 
were  !  I  wish  I  could  have  my  life  over  again,  but 
every  Skipper  thinks  that  no  one  could  have  such  a 
time  as  he  had  !  " 

"  I  don't  have  many  young  ladies  confided  to  my 
care  !  "  remarked  Captain  Amyas  dryly. 

"  No,  you're  getting  too  well  known,  from  South- 
ampton docks  to  Madagascar.  You're  a  worse  fel- 
low than  I  was,  D'Arcy ! "  said  Captain  Ronny, 
with  huge  enjoyment.  "  No  woman  was  really  the 
worse  for  me — unless  she  asked  for  it !  " 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  177 

"  You've  given  me  a  very  bad  character  !  " 

"  I'll  leave  the  little  girl  you  are  taking  out  to  cap 
it.  Treat  her  well,  you  scoundrel !  " 

"  I  shall  probably  leave  her  to  play  with  the 
engineers.  We've  got  three  nice  boys  goin'  with 
us  from  last  trip.  I  shall  tell  Stewart  to  keep  them 
in  order  though.  I  wonder  if  she'll  be  like  old 
Benson — if  so  there  won't  be  any  trouble  over  her. 
Did  you  ever  see  such  a  face?  It  looks  like  a 
figurehead  that's  been  to  Davy  Jones  and  come 
back  again." 

"  He  may  be  a  decent  Skipper  for  all  that.  He 
looked  to  me  like  a  rough-and-tumble  customer  if 
you  didn't  get  on  the  weather  side  of  him.  I  ex- 
pect he  dotes  on  this  daughter — the  roughest  black- 
guards always  do." 

"  It's  nothing  to  me  if  he  dotes  or  not,"  said 
Amyas  indifferently.  "  I'm  not  likely  to  worry 
myself  over  a  little  schoolgirl  of  that  class." 

"  Lucky  you  qualified  it ! "  chuckled  Captain 
Ronny.  "  You're  just  the  age  to  sicken  of  older 
women  a  little,  and  take  up  with  girls.  I  had  a 
sweetheart  of  fifteen  when  I  was  near  on  forty  ! " 

"  You  seem  to  have  varied  it  from  year  to  year !  " 
said  D'Arcy,  as  he  lit  another  pipe. 

"  I've  had  my  time,  and  it's  been  a  good  one, 
thanks  to  the  women  !  "  said  Ronny,  with  the  frank 
shameless  ness  of  a  pagan.  "  I  recollect  once  a  lady 
of  title  (I  won't  mention  names,  for  she's  well 
known)  sailing  with  me,  she  was  going  to  India  to 
join  her  husband.  I  had  only  spoken  to  her  three 


i;8  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

or  four  times,  when  just  after  we  left  Marseilles  one 
night  I  was  wakened  by  a  candle  being  flashed  into 
my  eyes.  There  was  the  lady — in  her  dressing- 
gown.  ...  I  thought  that  a  pretty  stiff  invita- 
tion, I  must  own.  She  was  a  handsome  woman 
too."  His  tone  beamed  with  reminiscence. 

"  No  need  to  say  that  you  accepted  it ! "  sneered 
Amyas.  "  I  can  recollect  one  girl  who  would  come 
and  share  my  watch  when  I  was  second  Mate.  She 
used  to  walk  up  on  the  bridge  as  cool  as  brass,  at 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  with  some  sort  of  wrap 
over  her  bed-gear.  We  were  in  the  tropics,  and  she 
perched  herself  up  on  the  rail  and  talked  to  me,  and 
I  was  beggin'  her  to  go  back  to  bed,  for  I  was  with 
Corry  that  voyage,  and  if  he  had  caught  us  nothin' 
would  have  made  him  believe  that  it  wasn't  my 
fault.  He  didn't  see  the  force  of  a  double  watch 
that  he  didn't  set  himself ! " 

"  He  knew  too  much  of  you !  I  don't  suppose 
you  had  any  objection  to  company,  eh  ?  Come 
along  home  and  have  some  supper.  Bessie  will  be 
thinking  that  you've  got  me  into  mischief  if  we  are 
late ! "  He  chuckled  at  his  own  humour,  and  his 
eyes  were  two  twinkling  points  of  strong  colour. 
Captain  Ronny  had  by  no  means  done  with  youth 
because  his  hair  was  white,  and  what  had  amused 
and  attracted  him  at  twenty  did  so  still  at  sixty-five. 

D'Arcy  Amyas  had  been  introduced  to  Mrs. 
Ronny  so  long  since  that  she  had  become  reconciled 
to  him,  although  she  told  him  sharply  her  opinion 
of  him  and  Merchantmen  in  general.  When  first 


CAPTAIN  AMY  AS  179 

he  had  met  her,  D'Arcy  had  been  surprised  to  find 
her  rather  a  pretty  woman,  many  years  younger 
than  her  husband,  but  still  not  young,  with  a  shrew- 
ish tongue.  She  ran  him  over  with  her  sharp  dark 
eyes,  and  greeted  him  characteristically  — 

"  How  are  you,  Mr.  Amyas  ?  I  know  you  must 
be  a  bad  man  if  you're  a  friend  of  Joe's.  But  there, 
don't  protest — you  are  all  alike.  I  dare  say  you 
won't  get  any  better  as  you  get  older  !  " 

D'Arcy  had  been  rather  taken  aback,  the  more  so 
as  his  quiet,  deferential  manner  never  blinded  her  to 
his  probable  behaviour  out  of  her  presence.  But 
though  he  recognized  that  Mrs.  Ronny  saw  through 
him,  he  generally  spent  his  time  when  on  shore  at 
their  house  at  Portswood,  having  no  home  of  his 
own. 

He  thought  no  more  of  Miss  Benson — he  did  not 
even  know  that  she  had  come  on  board  indeed,  until 
they  were  some  days  out.  It  was  after  the  Princess 
had  passed  Madeira  that  she  was  recalled  to  his 
mind. 

There  was  among  the  passengers  a  little  stunted, 
crooked  Author,  a  man  with  a  deformed  person's 
face  and  a  mind  as  twisted  as  his  body.  Amyas  had 
met  his  strange  searching  gaze  once  or  twice,  and 
had  shrunk  from  it  with  a  feeling  of  aversion.  The 
little  man  used  to  listen  while  the  Captain  talked, 
and  then  laugh  horribly  in  a  silent  fashion  of  his 
own.  On  the  day  in  question  Amyas  was  in  his 
cabin  after  luncheon,  when  there  came  a  tap  at  the 
door,  and  the  little  Author  entered. 


180  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  It  struck  me  that  you  might  like  to  see  this 
book,"  he  said,  putting  a  slim  paper-covered  thing 
on  the  table.  "  You  were  talking  about  modern 
poetry  with  Lady  Blaze  just  now — if  you  haven't 
read  the  verses  they  may  appeal  to  you." 

He  grinned  widely,  swung  round  on  his  heel  as 
if  it  caused  him  some  difficulty  to  turn  like  other 
men,  and  went  away,  leaving  Amyas  looking  suspi- 
ciously at  the  thin  volume. 

He  thought,  naturally  enough,  that  it  was  his 
strange  visitor's  own ;  but  was  reassured  by  the  title, 
Admirals  All !  Henry  Newbolt.  It  struck  him  that 
it  must  have  been  offered  to  him  on  account  of  its 
naval  flavour,  and  he  opened  it  rather  listlessly 
where  the  pages  fell  apart.  His  eye  lit  on  two 
lines  — 

"  Drake,  he  was  a  Devon  man,  an'  rilled  the  Devon  seas  — 
(Capten,  art  tha  sleepin'  there  below  ?)  " 

D'Arcy's  hands  tightened  on  the  book ;  he  sat  up 
and  read  "  Drake's  Drum "  through,  and  then  he 
went  back  and  read  it  again  slowly,  his  eyes  dreamy 
and  his  face  absorbed  on  the  printed  page. 

"  Drake,  he  was  a  Devon  man,  an'  ruled  the  Devon  seas  — 

(Capten,  art  tha  sleepin'  there  below  ?) 
Rovin'  tho'  his  death  fell,  he  went  wi'  heart  at  ease, 

An"  dreamin'  arl  the  time  o'  Plymouth  Hoe. 
« Take  my  drum  to  England,  hang  et  by  the  shore, 

Strike  et  when  your  powder's  runnin'  low ; 
If  the  Dons  sight  Devon,  I'll  quit  the  port  o'  Heaven, 
An'  drum  them  up  the  Channel  as  we  drummed  them 
long  ago ! '  " 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  181 

His  blood  beat  along  his  veins,  and  his  breath  came 
quickly.  Once  more  he  was  a  boy  with  the  haunt- 
ing memories  of  Drake  in  the  very  air  he  breathed 
—Drake  who  loved  Devon,  and  spoke  with  the 
county  accent ! 

"  If  the  Dons  sight  Devon,  I'll  quit  the  port  o"  Heaven  !  " 

It  clanged  like  the  sword  wrenched  out  of  the 
scabbard.  The  old  memories  that  he  had  steadily 
crushed  down  for  fifteen  years,  turning  his  eyes  to 
foreign  lands  from  the  familiar  aspect  of  Trawles, 
rose  up  out  of  their  graves,  triumphant,  merciless. 
There  was  not  one  of  those  far-away  lands  with 
which  he  had  forced  himself  into  familiarity  that 
lay  half  so  sharply  defined  on  his  mind  as  the  back- 
ground the  verses  called  up.  He  ground  his  teeth 
and  cursed  the  little  stunted  Author  with  the  mock- 
ing face  who  had  probed  his  weakness  so  well  in 
some  devilish  fashion  of  his  own,  that  he  had  known 
how  to  flay  him  mentally. 

Yet  the  witchery  was  too  strong  to  be  resisted. 
The  studied  comfort  of  his  cabin  faded  before  his 
eyes — the  heave  of  the  deck  against  the  broken 
blue  outside  his  half-drawn  curtain — the  sound  of 
eight  bells  striking  clearly — they  all  faded,  rolled 
back  on  the  ebbing  tide  of  the  present.  He  was 
back  in  Devonshire  again,  climbing  up  through  a 
break-neck  lane  between  red  fields,  with  banks 
where  the  green  fern  clung  to  the  wet  earth. 
Somewhere  out  of  sight  was  the  sound  of  Trawles 
Water  dropping  down  and  down  from  the  hills, 


1 82  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

until  it  came  in  sight,  a  foaming,  churning  waterfall 
tumbled  over  rough  rocks,  and  leaped  into  the  head 
of  Trawles  Valley,  cutting  the  village  in  two  till 
it  reached  the  wide  crescent  of  sea  which  sprang 
up  to  meet  his  sight  as  he  breasted  the  hill.  All 
the  rich  manor  lay  before  him,  billowed  up  and 
down  in  such  sweeps  of  land  as  could  only  be  seen 
in  fair  Devon.  The  sleepy  sunny  glamour  of  the 
West  country  was  upon  him,  the  sound  of  its 
speech  in  his  ears,  and  out  of  its  very  heart  rose 
the  old  lightning  fork  of  pain  that  had  driven  him 
to  shun  it. 

Dolly,  playing  with  him  barefoot  in  the  lanes — 
Dolly  grown  to  Dorothy,  whose  rose-hued  face  he 
had  kissed  in  her  fresh  maidenhood — ah !  and 
Dorothy,  ruined,  debased  in  her  very  womanhood, 
dragged  in  the  mire,  and  dragging  his  soul  with  her, 
until  he  trampled  his  ideals  underfoot  with  her 
memory. 

He  sat  and  gripped  the  fatal  little  book  of  verses, 
trying  to  think  it  all  out,  and  disentangle  the  pain, 
and  regain  his  standpoint  of  cynicism.  It  surged 
back  on  him,  the  training  and  experience  of  fifteen 
years.  He  remembered  his  old  heat  and  sick  anger 
— the  anger  that  makes  men  cold — at  the  thought 
of  the  Rev.  George  Dalkeith.  If  he  had  met  him 
then,  his  fingers  would  have  been  iron  strings 
round  his  throat  to  choke  his  great  life  out  of  his 
big  animal  body,  even  as  Nell  had  said.  And  now 
he  looked  back  at  it  with  a  sinister  wonder  that 
scorned  himself.  In  a  flash  of  self-revelation  he 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  183 

realized  that  now  he  sympathized  with  the  man,  if 
anything.  He  felt  that  should  they  meet  they 
would  have  something  in  common.  His  only 
regret  was  that,  since  the  deed  was  to  be  done,  he 

o  '  * 

had  not  been  the  man  to  do  it !  Pity  that  Dolly 
should  have  fallen  to  another !  Perhaps  his  moral 
degradation  was  complete  in  that  he  no  longer 
thought  of  her  as  The  Woman  of  his  life,  set  apart 
in  a  holy  of  holies,  but  merely  as  one  woman 
among  many — who  fed  his  appetite. 

So  absorbed  was  he  in  his  day-dreaming  that  he 
did  not  hear  a  hesitating  knock  on  the  door,  or  the 
half-drawn  curtain  lifted  and  some  one  enter.  At 
sight  of  him  the  intruder  turned  hastily  to  retire, 
and  the  movement  roused  Captain  Amyas,  who 
swung  round  in  his  chair. 

It  was  quite  a  young  girl  who  stood  with  one 
hand  on  the  curtain,  ready  to  flee,  little  more  than 
a  schoolgirl.  She  had  a  round  unformed  face,  and 
was  pretty  with  the  prettiness  of  extreme  youth, 
though  her  face  was  white  and  languid — even  in 
that  first  half-glance  it  flashed  across  his  practised 
mind  that  she  had  probably  been  very  ill  with  sea- 
sickness in  the  rough  weather  across  the  Bay.  Few 
of  the  ladies  had  appeared  before  Madeira,  and  he 
did  not  recollect  seeing  this  girl  at  any  of  the  tables 
or  on  deck.  She  was  a  slight  undeveloped  thing, 
and  her  big  eyes  were  those  of  a  scared  child. 

"  Well  ?  "  said  D'Arcy,  turning  still  more  round 
from  the  table  and  smiling.  His  voice  softened  for 
this  little  girl,  and  he  held  out  his  hand  as  if  to  a 


1 84  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

child.  He  had  ingratiating  manners  with  children, 
who  always  liked  him — a  point  invariably  held  up 
before  masculine  eyes  by  their  mothers. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon ! "  stammered  the  girl. 
"  I'm  Cherry — father  said  I  was  to  tell  you  I  was 
on  board.  He  is  Captain  Benson." 

"  Oh  !  "  Insensibly  his  voice  altered.  He  sat 
still  instead  of  rising,  as  he  might  have  done  for 
another  girl  who  came  into  his  cabin.  The  fact 
that  Cherry  was  only  Benson's  daughter  and  paid 
second-class  fare  though  she  travelled  first-class, 
did  not  influence  him  consciously ;  but  perhaps, 
had  he  been  a  gentleman  inwardly  as  well  as  out- 
wardly— and  he  had  the  reputation  of  always  be- 
ing that — he  would  never  have  remembered  it 
at  all. 

"And  why  haven't  I  seen  you  before?"  he 
asked,  stretching  out  a  hand  to  the  girl  as  she 
drew  nearer  the  writing-table,  a  half-fascinated, 
half-shy  look  on  her  face.  Cherry  had  had  some 
experience  of  Merchant  Captains,  but  they  were  of 
the  type  that  took  the  Seagull  out  to  Sydney,  or 
wheresoever  cargo  was  to  be  got,  and  the  big  man 
in  the  gold-braided  uniform  before  her  was  as  a 
bird  of  paradise  compared  to  jays  when  contrasted 
with  them. 

"  I've  been  so  ill !  "  she  said,  flushing  uncomfort- 
ably. "  I'm  not  a  very  good  sailor." 

"  Ah !  poor  little  soul !  It  was  rough  enough  to 
excuse  any  one  goin'  under  though."  He  took  the 
small  hand  hanging  limply  at  her  side  between  both 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  185 

of  his  and  played  with  it  kindly.  "  Feel  rather 
giddy  still,  don't  you  ?  " 

"  It's  my  head ! — but  I'm  all  right  to-day,"  ex- 
plained Cherry. 

"  You're  faint,  I  expect.  Haven't  picked  up  yet. 
Come  and  lie  down — you  see  how  nice  and  soft  my 
bed  is ! " 

A  slightly  alarmed  look  came  into  the  girl's  face 
as  he  rose  at  last  and  turned  to  the  berth.  She 
was  very  ignorant,  but  certain  things  her  father 
had  told  her  roughly  not  to  do,  without  further 
explanation.  She  murmured  something  about  go- 
ing down  to  the  saloon  for  tea,  and  was  shrinking 
past  Amyas,  who  caught  hold  of  her  by  the  waist. 

"  What's  that  ?  Nonsense !  I'll  give  you  tea 
here.  We'll  have  it  cosily  by  ourselves ! "  He 
lifted  the  little  soft  body  lightly,  and  laid  her  down 
on  the  berth,  standing  by  her  side  and  looking 
down  at  her. 

"  There !  now  you're  comfortable.    Head  better  ?  " 

"  Yes,  thank  you." 

Cherry's  head  turned  restlessly  under  his  gaze. 
She  had  pretty  hair,  fair  and  curly,  and  tied  back 
from  her  face  with  a  ribbon,  but  not  yet  convention- 
ally "  put  up."  Amyas  pulled  a  strand  of  it  through 
his  hard  fingers  while  he  laughed  and  talked  with 
her,  coaxing  her  out  of  her  shyness.  When  the 
steward  brought  his  tea  he  was  sent  back  for  a 
second  cup,  and  retired  to  grin  in  the  galley. 

"  The  old  man's  got  another  gurl !  Oh,  Lord  !  " 
he  said. 


186  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

The  cook  shrugged  his  shoulders  and  asked  who 
it  was. 

"  A  little  'un  this  time.  He's  put  her  up  in  his 
berth  already !  "  said  the  steward.  Amyas'  name 
was  never  so  coarsely  handled  as  by  the  men  of  his 
own  boat,  who  none  the  less  ran  at  his  bidding 
where  they  walked  for  other  people's. 

"  I  give  her  three  days  !  "  said  the  cook  sardonic- 
ally. 

In  the  meantime  the  Captain  and  his  charge  were 
wearing  off  the  new  edge  of  their  relations  with  each 
other.  Cherry  ate  her  tea  and  enjoyed  it,  and  the 
colour  came  into  her  cheeks  and  the  light  to  her 
eyes  while  she  told  Amyas  pretty  nearly  every 
detail  of  her  innocent  little  life.  She  was  seventeen, 
though  she  looked  less,  and  had  been  at  a  school  in 
England  for  the  past  five  years  while  her  father 
voyaged  about  the  world,  because  he  "  doted  on 
her,"  as  Captain  Ronny  had  expected.  It  had  been 
a  good  school,  and  Cherry  was  very  superior  to 
Benson  both  in  manner  and  appearance,  as  Amyas 
noticed  with  approval.  She  was  going  to  live  with 
a  married  aunt  at  Bulawayo  now,  for  her  mother 
had  died  long  ago,  and  Dad  wanted  her  to  be  some- 
where with  his  own  relations,  and  where  he  might 
occasionally  have  a  chance  to  see  her.  She  was  a 
pretty  little  thing,  and  the  colour  seemed  inclined 
to  stop  in  her  cheeks  for  good  when  the  dressing- 
bugle  sounded,  and  Amyas  lifted  her  out  of  the 
berth  and  kissed  her. 

"  You  don't  mind,  do  you,  Cherry  ?  "  he  said, 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  187 

holding  her  head  back  against  his  shoulder.  "  Be- 
cause we're  goin'  to  be  great  friends,  and  I  wanted 
to  seal  the  compact." 

No,  Cherry  did  not  seem  to  mind  at  all,  though 
the  young  dewy  lips  did  not  answer  in  words. 
A  my  as  might  have  remembered  another  maiden  of 
seventeen  whom  he  had  kissed  in  a  Devon  lane 
long  ago,  and  spared  this  one  for  her  sake ;  but  he 
had  thrust  his  memories  behind  him  again  when 
Cherry  came  into  the  cabin  and  distracted  him. 

"  And  we  will  keep  our  friendship  all  to  our- 
selves, eh,  Cherry  ?  " 

Yes,  Cherry  was  evidently  agreeable  as  to  that, 
for  she  nodded.  And  then  D'Arcy  laughed  and 
kissed  her  again,  telling  her  to  kiss  him  back,  and 
lifted  the  curtain  for  her  to  run  down  the  deck  to 
the  deckhouse. 

Half-way  down  she  met  the  Author  strolling  up 
to  dress,  for  he  had  a  deck  cabin.  He  saw  from 
whence  she  came,  and  as  the  rosy  face  flashed  past 
him  he  stopped  and  looked  backwards  and  for- 
wards, from  the  girl's  retreating  figure  to  the  curtain 
now  quite  drawn  over  the  Captain's  doorway. 

"  Ah  !  "  said  the  Author  significantly.  He  was  a 
horrible  little  man. 

The  cook  had  given  Cherry  three  days,  but  it  was 
four  or  five  before  the  other  ladies  on  board  began 
to  look  askance  at  her.  The  girl  was  in  the  Cap- 
tain's cabin  from  morning  till  night — was  there  no 
one  to  look  after  her  or  warn  her  ?  It  was  useless 
to  attempt  interference,  for  she  had  been  placed  in 


1 88  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

the  Captain's  charge  by  her  father,  and  her  presence 
in  Amyas'  cabin  was  carelessly  explained  by  that 
gentleman  as  being  because  she  had  been  so  ill,  and 
wanted  a  corner  to  be  quiet  in,  poor  little  thing ! 
The  other  women  echoed  the  last  three  words  signif- 
icantly, but  nobody  felt  that  it  was  absolutely  their 
own  disagreeable  task  to  defend  her  against  herself. 

The  little  stunted  Author  smiled  unpleasantly. 
Captain  Amyas  had  had  time  to  read  Admirals  All 
half-a-dozen  times  through,  but  had  not  yet  returned 
it,  so  no  doubt  thinking  that  it  had  been  forgotten, 
the  owner  strolled  up  to  his  cabin  one  evening  after 
dinner,  put  one  foot  on  the  step,  and  knocked. 
There  was  no  answer,  but  through  the  hanging  cur- 
tain he  heard  what  might  have  been  a  little  moan- 
ing cry  if  it  had  not  been  deadened  by  the  thick 
folds. 

The  Author  was  reminded  of  something — an  old 
garden  he  had  once  seen,  with  ivy-grown  walls 
where  nests  were  to  be  found,  and  the  cry  of  a 
young  wounded  bird  which  had  fallen  on  to  the 
hard  ground  below,  and  trailed  a  fluttering  broken 
wing.  It  might  fly  again,  but  never  far — nor  would 
it  ever  join  its  joyous  comrades  in  the  upper  air. 

He  took  his  foot  off  the  step  and  turned  away. 
There  was  utter  silence  behind  the  curtain. 

Later  that  same  night  one  of  the  women  who  had 
held  her  skirts  most  carefully  away  for  fear  of  con- 
tagion, passed  Cherry's  cabin  on  her  way  to  her 
own,  and  heard  the  sound  of  sobbing.  She  did  not 
stay  and  pry,  of  course — but  the  doorway  was  open 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  189 

and  unscreened,  and  she  looked. — Well,  there  was 
only  a  little  girl  on  her  knees  by  the  sofa  berth, 
with  her  face  buried  in  her  arms.  It  looked  a  very 
young  and  childish  figure  with  the  curly  head  bent 
so  low,  and  shaking  with  such  terrified  sobs.  And 
she  was,  after  all,  only  old  Benson's  daughter — the 
little  girl  on  whom  he  had  spent  his  heart  and  soul, 
and  worked  doggedly  through  years  of  a  harsh  life 
that  she  might  hold  up  her  head  with  the  best — as 
high,  for  instance,  as  the  lady  who  passed  on  to  her 
cabin  and  put  the  incident  out  of  her  mind  as  soon 
as  possible,  for  it  was  distasteful. 

Cherry  was  a  little  harder  in  her  manner  for  the 
few  days  that  remained  of  the  voyage — a  little 
more  inclined  to  brazen  things  out  too.  She  went 
in  and  out  of  the  Captain's  cabin  as  she  chose,  with 
a  frequency  that  might  have  been  bravado  ;  or  more 
possibly — for  she  was  a  soft  little  thing,  and  no 
Amazon — merely  a  seeking  for  refuge,  since  no  one 
else  desired  her  company.  The  rest  of  the  passen- 
gers were  polite — passengers  always  are  to  each 
other  when  they  talk  most  cruelly  behind  the 
scenes — but  the  thin  cold  barrier  of  their  reserve 
thrust  her  quietly  out  into  the  storm  to  sink  or 
swim.  The  Author  never  heard  her  cry  out  again, 
but  he  saw  the  voiceless  cry  in  her  eyes  night  and  day. 

He  was  the  last  person  on  board  to  know  any- 
thing of  her.  She  came  out  of  the  Captain's  cabin 
from  saying  good-bye  to  Amyas,  and  the  white  be- 
wilderment on  her  scared  little  face  touched  his 
artistic  appreciation  perhaps.  He  saw  her  standing 


190  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

by  the  little  luggage  she  had,  and  went  and  spoke 
to  her. 

"  Going  ashore  yet,  Miss  Benson  ?  " 

She  stared  at  him,  and  shivered  a  little  as  she 
answered  — 

"  Yes,  I  have  to  get  to  the  railway  station.  I  am 
to  catch  the  Johannesburg  train." 

"  Shall  I  get  you  a  place  on  the  tug,  then  ?  " 

"  Yes — please." 

He  not  only  saw  her  over  Durban  Bar,  but  he 
accompanied  her  and  her  boxes  through  the  cus- 
toms house  and  to  the  station.  She  seemed  stunned, 
and  hardly  thanked  him,  offering  him  her  hand 
mechanically  before  the  train  started.  The  last  he 
saw  was  her  frightened  face,  like  a  child's  which  is 
lost  in  the  dark,  at  the  carriage  window,  and  her 
eyes  blinded  with  tears. 

He  stood  looking  after  the  train  as  it  disappeared, 
with  his  hands  in  his  pockets ;  then  he  went  back 
to  the  ship  and  the  Captain's  cabin.  His  knock 
was  this  time  so  distinct  that  it  was  promptly 
answered. 

"  What's  the  matter  ?     Come  in." 

Amyas  had  just  changed  out  of  uniform  to  go 
ashore.  He  did  not  look  particularly  pleased  to  see 
his  visitor. 

"  Sorry  I  intruded  !  "  said  the  Author.  "  Have 
you  finished  with  that  book  of  mine  ?  " 

"  Oh — yes  !  There  it  is."  Amyas  took  it  out  of 
a  drawer  in  the  writing  table.  "  Thanks  very 
much." 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  191 

"  Hope  you  enjoyed  it !  "  said  the  Author,  with 
his  dog-grin.  "  Good  old  Drake  !  he  was  a  veteran. 
Guess  he  had  a  wife  in  every  port  though,  same  as 
all  sailors !  " 

He  slung  his  shoulders  round  under  Amyas' 
angry  eyes,  and  went  away  chanting — and  the  in- 
congruous taste  of  Nature  having  bestowed  on  him 
a  marvellously  sweet  voice,  the  notes  lilted  along 
the  deck  like  very  jewels  of  sound. 

"  You  call  yourself  a  man, 

For  all  you  used  to  swear, 
And  leave  me,  as  you  can, 
My  certain  shame  to  bear  ?  " 


CHAPTER  XIII 

"  Fair,  fair  Devon  ! 

Glassed  in  Heaven 
As  her  lovers  see. — 

Doeth  not  Devon 

Rhyme  with  Heaven  ? 
So  doe  they  agree. 

God  dropped  Devon 

Out  of  Heaven  — 
Devon  by  the  sea  !  " 

Devon  Song 

THE  lane  ran  upwards  and  downwards,  crossing 
the  head  of  Trawles  Valley,  and  out  at  its  lowest 
dip  by  Trawles  Water.  It  was  a  perfect  curve 
between  the  hills,  one  end  rising  up  over  the  Down, 
and  the  other  ending  in  a  sheep-track  among  the 
high  lands  on  the  Exeter  side  of  Trawles.  Half- 
way up  the  slope  to  the  Down  two  girls  were  sitting 
on  the  bank  eating  wild  strawberries  that  grew 
there.  There  were  slabs  of  granite  thrust  into  the 
rose-red  mould  to  prevent  it  slipping  down  into  the 
lane  itself,  and  between  these  slabs  grew  long  grass, 
intensely  green  and  as  fine  as  a  girl's  hair — far  finer 
than  any  that  can  be  cultivated  on  a  lawn.  The 
strawberries  grew  in  clumps  under  the  ivy-tangled 
hedges,  and  Nell  had  climbed  like  an  Exmoor  pony 
to  get  them. 

"  So  you  are  going  away  to-morrow,  Laurie," 
she  said  slowly,  pausing  with  a  ripe  berry  half-way 
to  her  mouth.  "  I  wonder  why  it  is  my  fate  to 
192 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  193 

make  friends  only  with  those  I  must  lose!  Had 
you  been  living  in  Trawles  I  suppose  I  should  never 
have  cared  about  you  ! " 

"  That  is  rather  nasty  of  you,  Nell,"  said  the 
other  girl,  stretching  out  her  hand  and  laying  it  on 
Nell's  tiny  fingers.  "  Does  it  give  me  some  special 
virtue  that  I  was  down  here  for  a  month  to  recuper- 
ate after  influenza,  and  being  lonely,  took  to  wander- 
ing about  the  country  and  met  you  ?  I  should  be 
just  the  same  Laurie  Desmond  if  I  had  settled  in 
Trawles  for  the  rest  of  my  life  !  " 

"  No,  that  is  just  it — being  Laurie  Desmond  I 
feel  that  the  fates  would  never  be  so  kind  to  me  as 
to  settle  you  in  Trawles !  You  come  and  go — all 
the  people  I  have  liked  have  come  and  gone. 
Only  /  am  always  left !  " 

Her  soft  passionate  voice — the  more  passionate 
because  so  soft — trembled  into  silence.  A  bird 
sang  in  the  June  evening,  and  the  dropping  of 
Trawles  Water  sounded  like  a  burr  below  them. 
The  rich  moist  air  was  heavy  with  the  scent  of  the 
earth  and  all  it  brings  forth. 

"  How  I  love  this  Devonshire  of  yours ! "  said 
Laurie  slowly,  her  eyes  straying  off  to  glowing  vistas 
of  woody  hollow  and  grass-swept  upland — all  the 
perfect  green  life  of  the  country.  «  It  is  like  a  cor- 
ner of  Heaven,  so  old  and  still  and  yet  alive! 
Coming  straight  from  Yorkshire  and  the  'barren 
North '  as  I  do,  you  cannot  think  how  I  appreciate 
it.  I  never  saw  anything  like  it  before — I  never 
dreamed  of  it ! " 


194  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  You  have  paraphrased  the  old  Devon  song," 
said  Nell,  smiling.  "  Don't  you  remember  ? 

'  God  dropped  Devon 
Out  of  Heaven  — 
Devon  by  the  sea ! ' 

Even  I,  who  have  always  known  it  and  always  lived 
in  it,  can  never  tire  of  its  loveliness.  People  say 
that  it  is  lazy  and  languorous,  but  I  never  found 
it  so." 

"  Nothing  would  make  you  lazy,  Nell — you  are 
too  quick  a  fairy."  There  was  a  moment's  pause, 
and  then  she  added,  "  Your  sister  is  very  unlike 
you  ?  " 

"  Yes."  Nell  turned  her  brown  eyes  restlessly  up 
and  down  the  lane  and  to  the  ivy-trails  above  her 
head.  The  ivy  was  doing  its  best  to  kill  a  beech 
tree,  and  the  green  moss  had  coated  the  ivy  and  was 
trying  to  kill  it  in  its  turn.  Nell  noticed  these  things, 
and  thought  that  Nature's  watchword  was  Rapine. 

"  You  have  only  seen  her  once  or  twice,"  she  said. 
"  She  appears  somehow  so  much  older  than  you 
— of  course  she  is  very  good  to  look  at,  all  the 
same." 

"  Dorothy  was  always  that.  I  suppose  even  if 
people  are  broken  on  the  rack  they  still  keep  the 
colour  of  their  eyes  and  the  gloss  on  their  hair." 

"  She  does  not  look  much  like  the  rack.  Except 
that  she  is  so  very  quiet,  she  seems  to  me  singularly 
unruffled  and  content.  I  have  learnt  to  suspect 
extreme  quietude  to  be  a  mask  for  trouble,  but  I 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  195 

should  hardly  have  thought  it  was  so  in  your  sister's 
case." 

"  She  has  outgrown  it — I  have  never  outgrown 
it !  "  said  Nell  briefly.  "  Yes,  you  are  right — she 
looks  contented,  and  she  probably  is  so.  She  has 
grown  plump  and  matronly.  She  has  had  five  chil- 
dren !  She  would  tell  you,  if  you  asked,  that  that 
man — Mr.  Dalkeith — is  a  good  husband.  But  she 
lost  something  fifteen  years  ago;  she  was  a  girl 
then,  an  independent  thing  with  a  soul,  not  a  type 
of  maternity — intended  merely  to  bear  and  nurse 
children!" 

"  Dreadful !  "  Laurie  knew  that  story,  and  shiv- 
ered. Nell's  fierce  white  face  was  turned  on  her 
with  burning  eyes ;  it  always  went  so  when  she 
spoke  of  her  sister. 

"  It  was  more  than  her  own  soul  that  she  lost," 
said  Nell  dreamily,  her  little  hands  clenched  in  the 
long  fine  grass  at  her  side.  "  There  was  a  boy  who 
loved  her,  and  he  went  too !  He's  a  man  now,  and 
I  think  a  bad  one.  He  loved  Dolly  from  the  time 
we  all  played  together — down  in  that  lane  I  showed 
you  that  leads  into  the  Exeter  road." 

"  Poor  boy  !     Who  was  he  ?  " 

"  The  son  of  an  old  captain  who  lived  down  here, 
an  ex-Navy  man.  His  name  was  Captain  Amyas. 
D'Arcy  Amyas  is  Captain  Amyas  now.  He  is  in 
the  Merchant  Service,  and  the  rumour  of  his  doings 
has  reached  even  Trawles." 

"  Poor  boy  !  "  said  Laurie  again.  She  was  think- 
ing of  the  wrecked  young  life,  and  of  Dolly. 


196  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  Yes,  you  would  have  been  sorry  if  you  had 
known  him.  He  was  a  nice  boy,  but  it  seemed  to 
alter  him.  I  saw  him  just  after  it  all  came  out — 
some  one  must  have  told  him.  We  were  in  the 
wood  up  there  " — she  pointed  with  her  forefinger  to 
the  cliff-side  overhanging  Trawles.  "  It  was  rain- 
ing, and  the  wind  lashing  through  the  trees,  and  we 
stood  and  looked  at  each  other.  All  the  goodness 
was  wiped  out  of  his  face,  and  I  saw  that  he  was 
only  a  devil.  He  went  away — I  told  you  they  all 
go  away ! — and  out  across  the  world,  and  he  found 
it  hard  as  I  told  him  he  would.  I  saw  him  last 
about  five  or  six  years  ago — perhaps  more.  He 
was  riding  downhill  fast  then  !  " 

"  Poor  boy ! "  said  Laurie  for  the  third  time. 
"  What  was  he  like  ?  " 

"  I  will  show  you  a  photograph  I  have  of  him  at 
home.  It  was  taken  when  he  was  young — and 
might  have  been  a  good  fellow.  He  gave  it  to — 
Dolly.  He  is  in  uniform — you  know  I  told  you  he 
is  in  the  Merchant  Service.  I  wondered  if  you 
would  meet  him  by  any  chance,  when  I  heard  you 
were  going  to  Africa." 

"  Ah  !  but  we  are  going  a  long  tour  round,  over- 
land, and  home  by  the  other  side  of  the  world." 

"  You  might  return  by  sea — something  might 
happen  to  change  your  plans.  Anyhow  I  will  write 
to  D'Arcy  and  tell  him  to  look  out  for  you.  But  I 
do  not  say  you  will  like  him  now  !  " 

"  Why  ?  " 

Nell  laughed  her  queer  laugh.     "  His  step-sister, 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  197 

Millicent,  will  hardly  know  him  since  her  marriage ! " 
she  said.  "  She  is  too  respectable,  and  the  fame  of 
him  is  gone  abroad  into  all  lands.  He  must  be 
very  fast !  " 

Laurie's  brows  knitted  themselves.  "  I  do  not 
like  that,"  she  said.  "  No  woman  does  who  knows 
what  it  really  means — it  is  only  silly  little  girls  who 
think  there  is  something  grand  and  fascinating  about 
a  man  who  has  that  reputation.  The  real  transla- 
tion is  that  he  is  ruining  his  health  by  some  self-in- 
dulgence or  other.  Does  Captain  Amyas  drink?" 

«  No — it's  women,"  said  Nell  with  an  impish  shrug 
of  her  shoulders.  "  I  should  think  I  am  the  only 
girl  whom  D'Arcy  has  known  intimately  to  whom 
he  has  not  made  love !  I  dare  say  you  will  hear  of 
him  on  your  way  through  Africa.  Do  you  know 
any  one  there  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  Laurie  thoughtfully,  "  unless  we  go  to 
Bulawayo.  There  was  a  little  girl  at  school  with 
me  who  was  a  great  pet  amongst  the  older  girls,  of 
whom  I  was  one.  She  was  only  about  twelve  when 
I  left,  and  her  name  was  Cherry  Benson.  She  was 
a  pretty  little  thing,  and  very  clinging  and  affec- 
tionate. She  wrote  to  me  for  years  after  I  left — in 
fact  I  had  her  last  letter  about  six  months  ago,  and 
then  she  told  me  she  was  leaving  school,  and  going 
out  to  Africa  to  live  with  an  aunt  whose  address  she 
gave  me.  I  shall  go  and  look  her  up  if  we  get 
there." 

"  School  friendships  always  seem  to  last,  don't 
they  ?  "  said  Nell,  leaning  her  pointed  chin  in  her 


198  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

hand.  "  I  never  went  to  school,  so  I  never  had 
any!" 

"  I  did  not  make  so  many  friends.  Oughtn't  we 
to  be  getting  home,  Nell  ?  I  wish  I  had  hired  Bes- 
sie and  the  cart,  then  we  could  have  stayed  later." 

Both  girls  rose  and  scrambled  down  the  bank, 
almost  tumbling  into  the  lane,  and  turned  their 
faces  downhill.  Bessie  was  a  small  Exmoor  pony, 
who  was  hired  out  by  the  owner  of  a  diminutive 
"  general "  shop  in  Trawles  to  the  few  visitors  who 
came  there.  She  pulled  a  little  rough  dogcart,  de- 
void of  springs  or  cushions ;  but  Laurie  Desmond 
had  hired  the  conveyance  on  many  occasions  when 
she  and  Nell  wished  to  go  far  afield.  Laurie  was 
still  so  much  of  an  invalid  that  she  could  not  walk 
far  up  and  down  the  hills,  and  though  Nell  had  done 
it  all  her  life  she  was  glad  to  ride  for  a  time — it  was 
a  new  experience.  Only  since  Laurie  had  dropped 
into  her  life  had  she  known  what  it  was  to  afford 
such  small  luxuries  as  Bessie  and  the  cart,  whose 
hire  was  eighteenpence  an  hour.  Nell's  general  life 
did  not  admit  of  the  expenditure  of  eighteenpences, 
and  she  never  shared  her  sister's  equipage,  though 
Mrs.  Dalkeith  had  her  pony  carriage  at  her  own  dis- 
posal. But  then  they  lived  twenty  miles  apart,  and 
Nell's  rare  visits  were  made  by  train. 

Laurie  Desmond  was  not  to  be  called  rich,  but 
she  was  independent  enough  in  means  and  charac- 
ter to  take  rooms  in  Trawles  and  stop  there  by  her- 
self when  the  doctors  sent  her  into  Devonshire. 
She  was  one  of  those  girls  whose  characters  have 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  199 

been  strengthened  and  moulded  by  the  lack  of  any 
support.  Her  money  was  her  own,  and  her  parents 
being  dead,  she  preferred  to  live  an  independent  life 
rather  than  make  her  home  permanently  with  any 
one,  though  the  greater  part  of  her  year  was  spent 
with  an  uncle  and  aunt,  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Desmond. 
It  was  with  them  that  she  was  going  round  the 
world  on  a  tour  of  pleasure  and  profit,  since  they 
were  all  three  in  harmony  and  loved  to  travel.  Be- 
sides Colonel  and  Mrs.  Desmond  she  had  only  one 
near  relative — a  step-brother,  who  was  afterwards  an 
agent  of  Fate  in  her  life.  But  at  this  time  he  hardly 
influenced  her,  for  he  was  in  London  in  the  office 
of  a  large  mercantile  firm,  and  lived  with  some  con- 
nections of  his  mother's. 

Nell  and  Laurie  went  home  slowly,  loitering 
through  the  lanes,  up  to  the  small  cottage  where  the 
Rev.  Sydney  Culverton  lived  on  patiently  from  year 
to  year  without  hope  of  change.  He  had  no  influ- 
ence to  back  him  or  to  push  him  on,  nor  was  he  a 
brilliant  man  to  rise  by  his  own  gifts.  He  was 
simply  a  hard-working  parish  priest,  whose  abso- 
lutely unselfish  labours  among  his  poor  met  with 
but  scant  acknowledgment.  He  had  little  money  to 
give  away,  and  only  a  few  recognized  his  value  and 
loved  the  "  Pareson  " — a  title  they  reserved  for  him 
from  his  long  connection  with  them,  and  would  not 
give  to  the  vicar.  The  latter  was,  as  Millicent 
Amyas  had  said,  a  slave-driver.  True,  he  spared 
himself  as  little  as  his  curate,  but  Sydney  Culver- 
ton's  position  had  hardly  been  bettered  after  the 


200  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

tragedy  in  his  home  which  had  driven  the  Rev.  the 
Hon.  George  Dalkeith  away  from  the  vicarage. 

Nell  lifted  the  latch  of  the  garden  gate  and  pre- 
ceded Laurie  up  the  path  between  rows  of  cabbages 
and  beans.  The  cottage  had  only  a  strip  of  garden, 
running  uphill, — most  things  were  on  a  slant  in 
Trawles — and  this  was  thriftily  devoted  to  useful 
produce.  But  pink  roses  and  honeysuckle  rioted 
over  the  porch,  and  jessamine  thrust  itself  in  at  the 
windows  and  made  the  rooms  odorous. 

The  cottage  was  thatched  with  straw,  and  a  por- 
tion of  it  had  lately  been  renewed,  so  that  patches 
of  golden  yellow  showed  amidst  the  nondescript 
brown  of  the  older  roof.  It  was  an  old  building 
altogether,  with  small-paned  latticed  windows,  and 
chimney-flues  built  out  at  odd  angles  which  had 
grown  first  mossy  and  then  become  the  bed  of  some 
strange  plant  which  wanted  but  little  depth  of  soil. 
Laurie  did  not  know  its  name,  but  she  had  seen  it 
clinging  like  a  parasite  to  similar  ledges  in  the  older 
houses  in  Trawles. 

They  went  into  a  stone-flagged  passage,  and  up  a 
narrow  wooden  stairway  leading  to  Nell's  own  little 
room,  of  which  the  ceiling  sloped,  cutting  away  a 
goodly  piece  of  one  whitewashed  wall.  It  was  a 
barer  room  than  many  a  cottager's  wife's,  but  clean 
and  cool  and  as  innately  dainty  as  Nell  herself. 

"  I  shall  always  see  you  in  this  little  room ! " 
Laurie  said,  sitting  down  by  the  open  window  and 
looking  out  across  the  darkening  garden.  "  It  is  so 
like  you,  Nell !  " 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  201 

Nell  did  not  answer.  She  was  moving  about  the 
room,  removing  her  hat  and  tidying  her  hair.  Sud- 
denly she  took  something  from  the  wall  and  put  it 
into  Laurie's  hands. 

"  There  is  the  likeness  I  told  you  I  would  show 
you,"  she  said,  peering  over  Laurie's  shoulder 
at  it. 

Laurie  held  it  in  her  hands  and  looked  at  it  in  the 
summer  dusk.  It  was  small  and  faded — a  likeness 
taken  eighteen  years  ago  of  a  quite  young  man  in  a 
peaked  cap  and  the  suggestion  of  uniform  in  what 
could  be  seen  of  his  clothes,  but  it  was  only  a  head 
and  shoulders.  It  was  the  D'Arcy  who  had  kissed 
Dolly  in  the  lane  at  which  Laurie  gazed,  an  even 
younger  D'Arcy  than  Lady  Arthur  had  known. 

"  He  does  not  look  as  if  he  could  be  a  bad 
fellow  !  "  she  said  at  last,  slowly. 

"  Ah,  he  is  not  like  that  now,"  said  Nell.  "  He 
has  broadened  and  coarsened.  His  features  seem 
to  be  thicker,  his  lips " 

"  Oh,  don't !  "  Laurie  exclaimed  impulsively.  "  I 
like  this  so  much — I  don't  want  to  know  the  other. 
He  was  a  nice  boy  here — rather  over-sensitive  than 
otherwise,  and  a  little  discontented." 

"  He  is  not  discontented  now,"  said  Nell  with  her 
terrible  wisdom,  "  because  he  probably  never  denies 
himself  anything !  D'Arcy  might  have  been  irri- 
table if  he  had  gone  on  living  here,  but  his  life  has 
been  too  broad  for  that."  Nell  knew  nothing  of 
the  monotony  of  taking  a  ship  backwards  and  for- 
wards over  the  same  line  from  year's  end  to  year's 


202  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

end,  and  the  consequent  temptation  to  distraction. 
But  her  theory  was  in  general  correct.  D'Arcy  was 
not  irritable,  though  it  was  mainly  due  to  the 
healthy  conditions  of  the  first  twelve  years  of  his 
life,  rather  than  his  later  self-indulgences.  Trawles 
had  built  him  up  a  constitution  that  it  would  take 
him  many  years  to  break  down. 

Laurie  handed  the  photograph  back  after  a  min- 
ute without  further  comment,  and  went  down  to 
supper  with  her  friend.  It  was  not  always  that 
there  was  supper  at  the  cottage,  but  the  trawlers 
had  had  a  small  haul,  and  the  inhabitants  profited. 
When  the  haul  was  large  it  was  packed  at  once  and 
went  to  the  big  towns,  but  a  small  haul  was  disposed 
of  locally  and  so  cheaply  that  even  the  Culvertons 
fared  well  on  fresh  fish  and  bread-and-butter. 

After  supper  the  girls  went  out  and  sat  in  the 
porch,  sniffing  the  warm  flower-scented  air,  and 
watching  the  cold  English  stars  come  out  in  the  far- 
off  heavens  which  never  grew  really  dark  all  night. 
Laurie's  thoughts  had  wandered  away  to  the  pro- 
jected tour,  and  she  was  thinking  that  a  few  weeks 
hence  she  would  see  the  Southern  Cross,  when  Nell 
spoke  and  startled  her. 

"  Do  you  ever  wonder  why  I  hate  George  Dal- 
keith  so,  Laurie  ?  " 

Laurie  turned  her  face  to  the  sound  of  the  stirred 
voice.  It  had  hardly  been  more  than  a  whisper,  for 
the  sitting-room  window  was  open,  and  Mr.  Culver- 
ton  was  writing  in  there  with  a  shaded  lamp. 

"  No ;  I  think  your  resentment  of  that  old  wrong 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  203 

is  very  deep  though,  Nell.  You  hardly  see  your 
sister,  do  you  ?  " 

"  I  cannot — she  went  out  of  my  life  when  she 
married  him.  He  is  bad — bad  all  through  to  the 
core,  Laurie." 

"  Then  you  are  right  not  to  know  him,  Nell — un- 
less it  could  do  your  sister  any  good." 

"  You  have  never  been  in  love,  Laurie ! — never 
even  savoured  its  possibility !  " 

"  Why  do  you  say  that  ?  " 

"  I  know  it  by  the  simple  way  in  which  you  face 
life.  Right  is  right,  and  wrong  is  wrong  to  you  at 
present.  When  love  steps  in  it  complicates  every- 
thing— it  teaches  you  two  dreadful  things — charity 
and  sympathy.  They  show  you  all  the  world,  in- 
stead of  that  little  piece  of  it  straight  in  front  of 
you  which  is  all  you  saw  before.  Sometimes  I 
think  they  are  blind  guides,  and  sometimes  I  know 
that  in  them  lies  our  only  hope  of  heaven ! " 

"  Why  do  you  say  all  this,  I  wonder  ?  What  has 
it  to  do  with  the  subject  on  which  you  began  ?  " 

"  Don't  you  see  that  George  Dalkeith  is  the  man 
I  could  have  loved  if  things  had  been  otherwise  ?  I 
have  always  known  it,  from  the  very  first.  He  has 
just  the  splendid  physique  and  size  and  strength  that 
I  want,  because  I  am  so  small,  and  often  weak  and 
ailing." 

"  You  do  not  show  it,  Nell ! " 

"  No,  I  do  not  show  it  because  I  have  been  trained 
to  endure  from  a  child.  That  man — Mr.  Dalkeith 
— ruined  my  father's  health  and  strength  with  hard 


204  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

work,  ground  us  down  into  poverty  because  my 
father's  conscience  forced  him  to  supply  the  needs 
of  a  neglected  parish — broke  three  lives  on  the 
wheel  of  his  own  pleasures,  even  while  we  were 
only  children.  I  watched  it  for  years — it  was  the 
first  thing  that  I  realized  in  life.  Then  he  killed 
Dolly — morally  at  all  events — and  I  had  to  bow  my 
head  meekly  with  the  others  and  beg  him  to  marry 
her.  I  have  hardly  known  her  since  he  has  done 
so.  I  cut  myself  off  from  them  on  purpose,  lest 
some  day  I  should  stand  up  and  tell  him  what  I 
really  thought  and  felt !  And  yet  through  it  all  I 
have  known  that  I  could  have  loved  him,  as  Dolly 
never  did,  if  he  had  been  a  good  man — good  even 
with  commonplace  masculine  virtues.  Being  what 
he  is  I  have  had  the  grace  to  hate  him." 

Laurie  listened  to  the  strange  whispered  confes- 
sion across  the  dusk.  Ever  afterwards  she  thought 
of  Nell  as  telling  her  that  secret  of  her  life  in  the 
darkness,  their  faces  a  blur  from  each  other,  the  far- 
off  stars  looking  down  in  serene  disdain  at  the  un- 
recorded tortures,  and  the  lives  gone  astray,  which 
were  lived  out  on  earth. 

She  left  Trawles  the  next  day,  and  went  across 
England  to  Dover  to  join  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Des- 
mond. So  thoroughly  had  the  quiet  of  the  place 
imbued  her,  that  she  felt  the  busy  seaport  as  an- 
other world,  and  bewildered  by  its  alien  atmosphere 
of  coming  and  going  to  other  lands.  The  Devon- 
shire influence  wore  off  in  the  course  of  a  few  days, 
but  far  back  in  her  memory  lay  that  picture  of  in- 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  205 

tense  and  rich  peace,  a  gem  of  country  with  a  life 
apart,  and  its  moving  spirit  in  her  mind  was  Nell, 
with  her  fairy  face  and  figure  and  the  faint  echo  of 
the  West  country  in  her  voice.  Nell's  speech  was 
wonderfully  pure  and  free  from  accent  considering 
that  all  her  life  had  been  set  within  a  few  scattered 
miles  of  Trawles ;  but  her  vowels  were  as  soft  as 
only  Devon's  are — the  suggestion  of  a  "  tu "  for 
"  to,"  the  slurring  of  a  g,  the  sudden  introduction 
of  local  words  and  phrases  marking  her  West- 
country  birthright.  Perhaps,  loving  Nell,  she  loved 
the  place  where  she  had  met  her  the  more ;  but  it 
seemed  indeed  to  Laurie  that  — 

"  God  dropped  Devon 

Out  of  Heaven  — 
Devon  by  the  sea !  " 

The  Desmonds  crossed  to  Calais  and  went  direct 
to  Marseilles,  the  bright  foreign  country  flashing 
past  Laurie's  eyes  and  waking  her  to  life  and 
energy  and  the  interest  in  trivial  things  which  her 
stay  in  Trawles  seemed  almost  to  have  lulled  to 
sleep.  From  Marseilles  they  went  by  boat  to  Port 
Said,  and  thence  to  Cairo  and  up  the  Nile.  Colonel 
Desmond  knew  Egypt  by  heart — he  had  been  in 
the  Egyptian  army — and  he  was  an  invaluable 
companion.  Laurie  got  on  with  her  uncle  and 
aunt  better  than  with  most  people  ;  they  were  not 
young,  but  they  had  the  experience  of  having 
mixed  with  men  and  women  in  all  portions  of  the 
globe  rather  than  of  the  mere  passing  of  years. 


206  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

Colonel  Desmond  was  a  grey-haired  man,  with  a 
twinkle  in  his  eyes ;  there  seemed  to  be  nobody 
whom  he  had  not  met  or  heard  of,  and  his  conver- 
sation had  the  adaptability  of  the  social  genius  who 
is  born  and  not  made.  He  was  always  popular, 
and  had  the  reputation  of  telling  an  excellent  story 
— particularly  after  dinner.  His  wife  had  a  keen 
judgment  and  quick  wits  under  a  lazy  exterior. 
She  was  stout,  and  apt  to  take  her  ease  physically, 
but  her  mind  kept  more  than  abreast  with  the 
youth  of  the  times,  and  was  as  active  as  a  much 
younger  woman's.  They  had  a  wholesome  in- 
fluence on  Laurie,  who  was  a  little  too  theoretical 
from  lack  of  personal  experience,  and  their  point 
of  view  insensibly  corrected  her  rigid  standards  of 
life. 

"  Laurie  is  like  a  child  at  present,"  said  Mrs. 
Desmond  once.  "  Her  yea  is  yea,  and  her  nay, 
nay;  but  she  has  not  realized  the  multiplicity  of 
human  nature,  and  the  impossibility  of  setting  rules 
for  other  people.  When  she  comes  in  contact  with 
some  instance  in  direct  opposition  to  her  ideals, 
but  which  a  personal  interest  demands  that  she 
shall  not  condemn,  it  will  begin  to  educate  her." 

Strangely  enough  Nell  Culverton,  out  of  her 
narrow  life,  had  seen  and  said  the  same  thing. 

The  Desmonds  were  still  in  Egypt  when  Nell's 
letter  concerning  her  friend  reached  D'Arcy 
Amyas.  He  was  at  Durban  on  his  homeward 
way,  and  more  interested  at  the  moment  in  the 
French  atrocities  in  Madagascar,  with  which  he 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  207 

had  just  come  in  contact,  than  with  his  home  mail. 
He  opened  Nell's  letter  with  a  brief  glance  of 
wonder  at  the  unrecognized  handwriting,  having 
missed  the  postmark. 

"  Dear  D'Arcy,"  it  began. 

He  turned  in  still  greater  surprise  to  the  signa- 
ture. Few  women  wrote  to  him  by  his  name,  and 
this  was  a  woman's  handwriting.  He  did  not 
encourage  letters,  or  if  he  did,  only  under  a 
pseudonym.  The  epistle  had  the  merit  of  brevity, 
which  surprised  him  still  more ;  he  turned  the  page 
— "  Nell  Culverton." 

The  sensitive  memory,  on  which  the  very  name 
of  Trawles  acted  like  a  charm,  played  him  false 
again.  The  scent  of  the  hay  from  the  sloping 
meadows  was  in  his  nostrils  ;  the  banks  were  green 
with  fern,  and  the  wild  flowers  a  flush  of  beauty. 
Trawles  Water  went  singing  to  the  sea,  and  the 
red-sailed  trawlers  were  out,  scattered  over  the 
bay.  .  .  .  He  came  back  with  a  start  to  Nell's 
letter. 

"  DEAR  D'ARCY — If  in  your  journeyings  to  and 
fro  across  the  world  you  should  meet  with  a  certain 
Laurie  Desmond,  please  recall  that  she  is  a  friend 
of  mine,  and  make  yourself  known  to  her  as  an- 
other. She  is  going  a  long  trip  overland,  which 
will  take  her  to  Africa  at  one  point,  and  should 
anything  happen  to  bring  her  back  by  sea,  some 
freak  of  Fate  might  cause  you  to  meet.  She  has 
been  for  a  month  in  Trawles  this  year  for  her 
health,  and  I  found  her  trying  to  climb  the  bank 
above  the  Race  in  search  of  hart's-tongue.  You 


208  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

know  it  grows  up  there  among  the  dead  stumps, 
and  also  how  one  may  slip  back  and  get  an  ugly 
fall  and  a  ducking  if  one  does  not  know  the  Stair- 
way. I  saved  her  from  that,  and  we  made  friends. 
I  have  no  more  to  say  of  her  than  that — I  like  her  ! 
"  Yours, 

"  NELL  CULVERTON." 


D'Arcy  thought  more  of  the  picture  Nell's  letter 
brought  up  than  of  her  friend.  The  Race  was  a 
wide  shallow  in  Trawles  Water  where  the  current 
eddied  fiercely  and  then  leaped  down  some  feet 
among  the  rocks  to  find  a  narrow  bed  through  the 
meadows.  He  knew  the  spot  well,  and  the  hart's- 
tongue  ferns  that  grew  among  the  old  bowls  of 
elms  long  since  cut  down  ;  as  children  they  had  all 
climbed  up  after  the  ferns  by  the  twisted  roots 
which  they  called  the  "  Stairway."  He  put  the 
letter  in  his  pocket,  and  forgetting  Miss  Laurie 
Desmond,  he  took  his  boat  back  to  England  with- 
out discovering  her. 

From  Egypt  the  Desmonds  wandered  down  to 
Aden,  and  so  to  Colombo,  where  they  stayed  for 
some  time.  Their  intention  was  to  go  on  to 
Australia,  and  thence  to  South  America,  from 
which  they  would  come  home,  leaving  Africa  for 
another  occasion.  The  first  part  of  this  pro- 
gramme they  carried  out,  but  Mrs.  Desmond  had 
been  so  ill  during  the  voyage  from  Colombo  to 
Australia  that  she  declined  to  attempt  to  round  the 
Horn,  and  Colonel  Desmond  proposed  returning 
home  via  Africa  instead.  They  landed  at  Beira 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  209 

and  proceeded  up  country,  none  of  them  having 
yet  seen  much  of  the  third  continent  of  the  world. 

Of  all  the  changing,  splendid  sights  she  saw 
during  that  nine  months'  trip,  Laurie  remembered 
best  one  brief  dramatic  episode,  mainly  because  it 
was  a  tragedy  the  like  of  which  had  never  shaken 
the  levels  of  her  life  before.  It  stretched  her  im- 
agination to  cope  with  it,  and  the  process  began 
that  education  of  which  Mrs.  Desmond  spoke ;  but 
the  shock  of  a  fresh  experience  opening  up  new 
vistas  of  life  is  painful  to  the  recipient. 

It  happened  at  Bulawayo.  The  flat  zinc-roofed 
colonial  town,  with  its  long  avenue  of  trees  inter- 
secting it  throughout,  hardly  impressed  Laurie  at 
first ;  only  when  she  got  it  into  her  mind  as  the 
background  of  a  dramatic  situation  did  she  never 
lose  the  impression  of  it.  The  day  after  their  ar- 
rival she  went,  by  herself,  to  hunt  up  her  old 
school-fellow,  leaving  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Desmond  to 
explore  the  town.  The  Bensons  lived  in  a  com- 
monplace-looking house  enough  in  Tenth  Avenue. 
There  was  nothing  to  raise  it  above  the  ordinary 
level  of  the  most  petty  things  of  life,  but  when  she 
had  passed  its  unpretentious  door,  Laurie  found 
suddenly  that  she  was  in  the  midst  of  a  domestic 
tragedy. 

She  never  knew  exactly  what  happened.  She 
had  no  remembrance  of  the  stages  by  which  she 
came  to  grasp  the  situation,  or  how  she  was  admit- 
ted as  a  spectator — in  some  sort  an  actor.  She 
only  felt  the  pain  of  the  shock  in  her  life,  the  jar  of 


210  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

something  hideous  in  the  midst  of  the  African  sun- 
shine, and  the  scene  in  the  midst  of  which  she 
seemed  to  find  herself  without  any  preparation.  A 
man,  a  woman,  and  a  girl — the  latter  little  more 
than  a  child — made  up  the  foreground  of  the  pic- 
ture, and  herself  somehow  as  an  interested  partici- 
pator of  the  whole,  in  the  background.  The  man 
was  a  rough  man  with  coarse  ways  and  manners  ; 
she  recognized  that  he  was  not  of  her  own  class, 
and  that  his  life — of  which  she  knew  nothing — gave 
him  a  certain  lawlessness.  But  what  frightened  her 
more  than  anything  was  his  face,  and  the  way  he 
cursed  and  raved  at  some  one  whose  name  he  could 
not  tell,  and  swore  to  have  his  life.  She  felt  that 
he  would  fulfil  his  threat,  and  it  was  like  looking 
on  at  deliberate  murder  in  broad  daylight. 

The  woman  was  hard-featured  and  outspoken. 
There  was  no  reticence  in  her  handling  of  what  had 
occurred.  As  she  accused  the  girl  of  unlawful 
motherhood,  and  pointed  out  her  physical  state  to 
her  at  the  present  moment,  Laurie  felt  that  she 
must  shriek  or  cover  her  ears.  She  would  have 
run  away  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  sake  of  the  girl, 
whom  her  whole  energies,  her  impulsively  out- 
stretched arms,  seemed  too  slight  to  screen. 

A  girl,  almost  a  child — the  little  innocent  school- 
girl who  had  been  so  loved  and  petted !  Curly- 
headed  Cherry,  who  wrote  her  loving  little  letters 
for  years,  such  a  grateful  heart  had  she — now  that 
heaving,  panting  heap  by  the  bedside,  choking  with 
sobs  and  begging  them  not  to  curse  her.  The  new 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  311 

motherhood  in  the  slight  frame,  which  was  too 
young  and  feeble  to  support  its  dignity,  seemed  to 
Laurie  enough  reproach  to  have  stayed  those  cruel 
tongues. 

"  Go  away  !  "  she  said  suddenly.  "  Go  away,  and 
leave  me  with  her  !  "  She  sprang  erect  herself,  and 
drove  the  dreadful  outspoken  woman  and  the 
threatening  man  from  the  room.  She  turned  the 
key  on  them,  and  going  back  to  the  bed  knelt  down 
and  took  the  little  wreck  of  maidenhood  in  her 
arms. 

"  Hush !  "  she  said,  soothing  the  sobs.  "  You 
will  hurt  yourself,  dear  !  " 

She  thought,  in  an  agony  of  anxiety,  of  that  un- 
born life.  No  shrinking  from  the  disgrace  and  the 
sin  of  her  theories  occurred  to  her ;  she  was  con- 
cerned as  a  woman,  and  the  untried  youth  in  her 
dropped  away. 

Cherry  sobbed  on,  trembling,  and  clinging  to  her 
rescuer.  After  a  while  Laurie  disentangled  a  few 
words  from  her  panting  breath,  and  divined  that 
she  was  anxious  for  her  seducer. 

"  Dad  will  kill  him — he  says  so  !  "  she  gasped. 

This  was  another  wonder — this  survival  of  love 
from  the  wreck  of  its  degradation.  Laurie  felt  as  if 
the  child  she  held  in  her  arms  were  infinitely  older 
than  herself  in  wisdom.  She  said  simply,  "  Would 
he  marry  you  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no  !  " 

There  was  no  hesitation  in  that  wistful,  ignorant 
humbleness. 


212  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  What  is  his  name,  dear?  " 

"  I  will  not  give  it  up — Dad  doesn't  know.  They 
may  kill  me,  but  I'll  never  tell  them  ! " 

"  Would  you  like  to  tell  me,  Cherry  ? "  She 
wondered  how  she  knew  that  the  girl  would  trust 
her  and  would  be  relieved  to  tell. 

"  Will  you  swear  to  keep  it  secret  ?  " 

"Yes." 

She  whispered  a  name,  and  Laura  did  not  flinch 
or  tremble.  Only  for  an  instant  she  grew  perfectly 
still,  while  she  thought  of  Dolly,  and  of  another 
scene  that  must  have  resembled  this  years  ago. 
Nell's  words  came  back  too — "  I  saw  that  he  was 
only  a  devil !  " 

She  rose  from  her  knees  at  last,  feeling  very  sick. 
Cherry  was  quieter,  but  trembling.  Laurie  helped 
her  to  undress  and  got  her  into  bed.  Then  she 
kissed  her,  and  said  she  would  go  and  speak  to  her 
aunt  and  father. 

"  I  will  not  let  them  bully  you,"  she  said. 

She  walked  into  the  sitting-room  with  a  firm 
light  step  and  her  head  thrown  up.  There  was  an 
authority  about  her  to  which  even  the  woman 
bowed,  staring  at  her  with  some  curiosity  under 
bent  brows.  Cherry's  aunt  was  not  hard  of  heart ; 
she  had  only  the  practical  common-sense  of  her 
class,  and  resented  the  shipwreck  of  the  poor  little 
life  over  which  she  must  watch.  She  flounced 
about  and  banged  things  on  the  table,  but  she  was 
not  uncivil,  even  when  Laurie  told  her  plainly  that 
she  must  nurse  Cherry  gently,  and  not  speak  a 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  213 

word  of  reproach.  Perhaps  plain  speaking  suited 
her. 

The  man  was  harder  to  deal  with,  being  beyond 
control  of  God  or  devil.  He  was  mad  with  rage 
and  pain,  and  his  bloodshot  eyes  rolled  restlessly 
away  from  Laurie  even  while  she  spoke  to  him. 

"Do  you  know  his  name?  Has  she  told  you 
who  it  is  ? "  he  said  hungrily.  "  She  won't  tell 
me!  " 

"  She  is  afraid  you  will  kill  him ! " 

"So  I  will!" 

Laurie  shuddered.  "  I  cannot  give  you  his 
name,"  she  said.  "  You  must  treat  your  daughter 
kindly." 

"  Amyas  was  responsible  !  "  he  said  with  an  oath. 
"  I  put  her  in  his  care — but  he's  too  fine  a  gentle- 
man to  look  after  a  girl.  He  let  one  of  his  d d 

passengers  ruin  her  " — he  used  a  broader  word — 
"  and  won't  even  know  who.  Or  else  it  was  some 
one  on  the  way  up." 

Laurie  did  not  answer.  She  left  the  house  with 
a  faint  giddiness  growing  upon  her  that  threatened 
to  make  her  fall  in  the  long  glaring  street.  A 
conviction  that  Benson  would  discover  the  perpe- 
trator of  the  outrage  and  fulfil  his  threat  was  upon 
her,  and  though  she  loathed  the  mere  idea  of  the 
man  who  was  guilty,  she  felt  that  she  ought  per- 
haps to  warn  him.  It  was  a  mere  instinct  of  com- 
mon humanity,  backed  by  a  morbid  prick  of  con- 
science, that  told  her  she  would  fain  have  abandoned 
him  to  his  fate.  Benson  must  find  out  in  time ; 


214  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

there  would  be  a  dozen  witnesses  on  board  ready  to 
hint  the  probability  to  him,  though  they  said  noth- 
ing definite. 

She  found  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Desmond  too  upset 
themselves  to  notice  her  appearance  when  she  got 
back  to  the  hotel.  They  had  just  received  a  tele- 
gram necessitating  their  return  to  England,  and  the 
Colonel  had  wired  to  Durban  booking  passages  in 
the  next  boat  leaving  after  they  could  get  back 
there.  Mrs.  Desmond  did  remark  that  Laurie 
looked  white  and  shaken,  but  supposed  that  she  had 
foolishly  walked  home  in  the  sun. 

"  Never  mind  me,"  said  Laurie  wearily.  She  felt 
she  could  not  tell  them  anything  about  Cherry  as 
yet — perhaps  not  at  all.  It  was  an  experience  too 
raw  to  be  criticized.  "  What  boat  are  we  going  in  ? 
When  do  we  leave  ?  " 

"  This  afternoon — you  had  better  go  and  tumble 
your  things  into  the  boxes.  Isn't  it  a  pity  our  trip 
should  be  cut  short  ?  It's  a  mercy  we  didn't  go  on 
to  South  America,  though  ! " 

She  forgot  to  mention  the  boat,  and  Laurie  did 
not  notice  the  omission.  Not  until  they  reached 
Durban,  and  were  going  on  board,  did  she  hear  that 
it  was  the  Princess,  and  Colonel  Desmond  added, 
"  The  Captain  is  that  brute  Amyas  !  Don't  have 
anything  to  do  with  him,  either  of  you.  Do  you 
hear  ?  " 

"  The  man  who  can't  keep  his  hands  off  a  woman, 
isn't  he  ?  "  said  his  wife.  "  That's  an  exaggeration 
no  doubt,  but  I  have  heard  ugly  tales  of  him.  I 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  215 

shall  be  curious  to  see  if  he  is  really  attractive.  I 
know  the  type  of  ladies'  captain — a  fat  body,  red 
cheeks,  black  hair  and  beard,  and  generally  hand- 
some eyes ! " 

Colonel  Desmond  grunted.  He  had  said  his  say, 
and  dropped  an  unsavoury  subject.  Had  he  had  a 
choice  he  would  have  booked  in  another  boat. 

Laurie  said  nothing. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

"  Yea,  and  the  scorn  she  had  of  me 

In  the  old  time,  doubtless  vexed  her  then. 
I  never  should  have  kissed  her.     See 
What  fools  God's  anger  makes  of  men ! 

"  Yea,  all  this  time  I  tended  her, 

I  know  the  old  love  held  fast  his  part ; 
I  know  the  old  scorn  waxed  heavier 
Mixed  with  sad  wonder  in  her  heart." 

A.  C.  SWINBURNE 

THE  Princess  had  left  the  shore  behind  her  some 
hours,  and  was  steaming  away  over  smooth  blue 
water,  ringed  round  with  the  same  element  to  the 
horizon  line,  before  Laurie  had  the  encounter  to 
which  she  half  looked  forward  as  a  thing  to  be  got 
over,  and  yet  dreaded  with  sickening  senses  and  a 
moral  shudder.  She  had  a  great  horror  of  all  un- 
clean things,  and  to  her  the  moral  leprosy  of  the 
man  whom  she  felt  it  her  duty  to  warn  of  his  dan- 
ger was  as  tangible  as  the  physical  disease  would 
have  been. 

She  did  not,  naturally  enough,  catch  sight  of  the 
Captain  going  out  of  harbour,  and  it  was  the  later 
afternoon  before  they  met  and  passed  each  other, 
but  without  recognition  on  either  side  at  the 
moment.  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Desmond's  seats  were 
at  the  Captain's  table,  and  their  niece's  also ;  but  the 
Captain  did  not  appear  at  luncheon,  he  was  on  the 
216 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  217 

bridge.  Laurie  had  some  unpacking  to  do  after 
lunch,  and  went  to  her  cabin,  which  she  was  sharing 
with  another  lady — a  stranger  to  her.  When  she 
came  on  board  again  it  was  about  four  o'clock,  and 
the  long  promenade  deck  was  half  full  of  deck- 
chairs  whose  occupants  were  reading,  or  dozing,  or 
making  acquaintance  with  each  other.  Laurie 
emerged  from  the  deckhouse  on  the  port  side,  but 
not  seeing  her  aunt  among  the  loungers  went  up 
for'ard,  and  skirting  the  Captain's  cabin  began  her 
hunt  down  the  starboard.  She  had  just  caught  sight 
of  Mrs.  Desmond,  who  looked  like  a  mere  comfort- 
able bundle  of  wraps  at  a  distance,  when  she  heard 
some  one  coming  along  the  deck  behind  her,  and 
one  of  the  passengers  said  "  Good-afternoon,  Cap- 
tain." 

Laurie  did  not  turn,  but  the  man  for  whom  she 
had  been  waiting  passed  her,  and  she  looked  at 
him. 

So  this  was  Captain  Amyas.  A  big,  blond  man 
— D'Arcy  had  filled  out,  as  Savernake  said — with 
blue  eyes  drawn  upwards  at  the  corners,  as  if 
through  much  looking  out  over  miles  of  sea,  fairly 
good  features,  and  a  tanned  skin.  He  had  grown 
the  short  beard  he  wore  as  more  suited  to  his  pro- 
fession than  only  the  soft  moustache  of  his  junior 
days,  and  the  real  golden  of  his  hair  looked  almost 
yellow  thrown  up  by  his  burnt  face  and  neck. 
D'Arcy  Amyas  had  been  something  more  than  fair- 
haired  from  his  youth  up ;  that  nondescript  term 
includes  half-a-dozen  shades  of  brown  when  applied 


218  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

to  Englishmen.  D'Arcy's  hair  was  bright  enough 
to  be  termed  golden — pale  enough  for  straw  colour. 
He  was  wearing  the  ordinary  dark-blue  cloth,  it  not 
being  hot  enough  yet  for  the  white  linen  which  the 
officers  affected  in  the  tropics.  His  cap  was  tilted 
over  his  eyes,  and  the  gold  band  made  a  sharp  line 
in  the  thickness  of  his  bright  hair.  Had  he  not 
been  marked  out  beforehand  in  her  mind  by  his 
unhallowed  notoriety,  the  girl  would  have  passed 
him  over  as  a  well-looking  man  enough,  apparently 
suited  to  his  place  in  life,  and  probably  a  gentle- 
man. 

He  strolled  to  the  side  of  the  ship  and  looked 
over,  asking  a  question  of  a  sailor  passing  at  the 
moment.  Laurie  shivered  involuntarily  as  the  soft 
flat  accent  struck  on  her  ears.  How  it  brought 
back  Trawles !  Every  woman  who  had  had  cause 
to  remember  Captain  Amyas  sauced  her  memories 
with  that  emphatic  betrayal  of  his  county  in  his 
speech.  Long  after  his  face  was  an  evil  dream  to 
them,  the  chance  hearing  of  a  shortened  vowel,  or 
the  soft  hoarseness  of  a  fellow-countryman,  would 
bring  him  back  vividly  as  when  he  walked  his  own 
deck  in  the  days  of  their  folly. 

He  had  passed  Laurie  to  reach  the  ship's  side,  and 
she  hesitated  a  second  whether  to  pass  him  again. 
The  next  she  had  made  her  way  quietly  through 
the  deck-chairs,  and  reaching  her  aunt's  side,  with  a 
little  sigh  of  relief  sat  down  by  her.  Amyas  noticed 
the  girl  as  she  walked  down  the  deck  from  habit. 
She  was  tall,  and  light  on  her  feet ;  he  thought  she 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  219 

moved  easily,  and  probably  had  a  pretty  figure. 
But  her  back  was  towards  him. 

"  Who's  that  girl  goin'  up  the  deck  ?  "  he  said  to 
his  Chief  Officer,  who  had  been  on  duty  among  the 
passengers  and  was  near  at  hand. 

"  Who,  sir  ?  Oh,  the  tall  girl  in  white.  Her 
name  is  Desmond,  I  think." 

"  Oh,"  said  Amyas,  without  the  name  striking 
him — he  had  almost  forgotten  Nell's  letter.  "  Who 
is  she  with  ?  " 

"  She  has  her  people  on  board — a  Colonel  and 
Mrs.  Desmond.  They  are  rather  nice,  I  believe." 

D'Arcy  dropped  the  subject  and  began  his  usual 
round  amongst  his  guests,  stopping  to  chat  with  one 
group  and  another,  recognizing  old  friends  or  mak- 
ing new  ones.  It  was  rather  a  pleasant  boat-load  on 
the  whole — to  him,  at  any  rate  ;  there  were  a  good 
many  young  married  women,  some  of  them  return- 
ing home  as  grass-widows,  and  he  had  generally 
picked  them  out  as  his  companions  on  former  voy- 
ages. The  incident  of  Cherry  had  been  unusual,  for 
he  rarely  bestowed  more  than  passing  attention  on 
girls,  to  the  unbounded  relief  of  their  parents  and 
guardians  ;  but  then  he  had  not  regarded  "  old  Ben- 
son's daughter  "  as  in  the  same  station  in  life  as  the 
girls  who  travelled  on  his  boat  in  the  conventional 
charge  of  their  own  families.  Had  he  stated  his 
real  opinion  of  the  status  of  Joseph  Benson  and 
himself  he  would  have  been  forced  to  own  that 
though  professionally  in  the  same  position,  Benson 
did  not  by  any  means  belong  to  the  same  class  as 


220  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

himself.  Nor  to  a  certain  extent  did  he.  It  is  one 
of  the  most  confusing  snares  of  the  Merchant 
Service  that  there  are  no  absolute  barriers  between 
class  and  class,  and  nothing  to  prevent,  though  dis- 
advantages may  hinder,  a  Warspite  boy  from  rising 
to  the  same  position  as  an  apprentice  from  the 
Worcester,  the  one  being  possibly  a  waif  from  the 
streets  and  the  other  the  son  of  gentlefolk.  Such 
lack  of  distinction  has  its  drawbacks  as  well  as  its 
incentives  to  ambition.  D'Arcy  regarded  Cherry 
Benson  as  much  in  the  same  category  as  a  village 
girl  in  Trawles,  or  a  little  maid  at  a  hotel — fair  game 
if  she  could  be  persuaded  to  part  with  her  virtue, 
and  with  no  great  blame  attaching  to  her  seducer. 
If  he  suffered  from  an  uneasy  conscience  it  was 
purely  on  account  of  the  girl's  age  and  ignorance  ; 
but  at  the  time  of  their  intimacy  he  had  been  urged 
on  headlong  by  the  very  difficulties  in  his  way. 
Cherry  was  not  a  consenting  confederate  of  the 
young  married  woman  type  that  D'Arcy  knew  so 
well ;  she  had  been  frightened,  and  tried  to  break 
the  chain  of  her  fascination  many  times,  and  all  his 
sporting  instinct  had  been  roused  to  run  down  his 
quarry.  When  escape  was  impossible,  and  the  girl 
had  made  one  last  frantic  effort  to  resist  she  knew 
not  what,  the  man's  passion  had  carried  him  away, 
— and  then,  the  sensation  of  shame  being  uncom- 
fortable to  the  robust  male  animal,  he  had  forgotten 
the  girl  as  soon  as  circumstances  released  him  from 
the  reproach  of  her  presence. 

He  did  not  think  of  the  Desmonds  again  until  he 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  221 

saw  them  seated  at  his  own  table  on  taking  his 
place.  Colonel  Desmond's  cool,  keen  face  was 
usually  attractive  to  his  fellow-men,  and  he  was 
talking,  and  talking  well,  to  an  influential  passenger 
well  known  to  Amyas.  But  beyond  a  cursory  re- 
mark in  the  general  hum  of  conversation,  he  did 
not  address  the  Captain  at  all.  Nor  was  his  wife 
any  more  effusive.  True  they  were  at  the  further 
end  of  the  table,  but  Amyas'  trained  senses  told 
him  that  there  was  an  uncongenial  note  here — 
without  being  in  the  least  uncivil  they  were  not 
going  to  cultivate  him.  He  had  met  this  kind  of 
aloofness  before,  but  it  had  troubled  him  little,  being 
confined  to  persons  whose  strictness  of  theories 
made  them  dull  and  uninteresting  to  his  mind,  be- 
sides their  invariable  unimportance.  In  the  case  of 
such  people  as  the  Desmonds,  however,  it  annoyed 
him.  The  Colonel  was  a  pleasant  passenger  with 
an  attractive  personality,  and  a  man  of  the  world ; 
his  wife  was  equally  delightful,  to  judge  from  the 
pleased  expression  of  her  neighbours  and  the  laugh- 
ter at  that  end  of  the  table.  Amyas  chafed  silently, 
and  looked  at  the  third  member  of  the  party.  He 
remembered  her  as  the  slender  girl  who  had  walked 
well,  now  he  saw  her  face.  She  was  well-bred  and 
good-looking,  he  thought,  but  not  to  be  described 
as  pretty.  That  was  too  conventional  and  ordinary 
a  word  for  this  girl's  type  of  face.  She  parted  her 
hair  at  the  side  too,  which  gave  her  an  unusual 
appearance  ;  it  suited  her  face  perfectly,  and  when 
she  smiled  that  half-humorous,  half-grave  smile,  she 


222  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

made  him  interested  in  spite  of  himself.  He  looked 
at  her  steadily  off  and  on  through  dinner,  but  could 
not  discover  that  she  once  lifted  her  grey  eyes  in 
his  direction.  He  only  discovered  their  colour 
through  her  turning  her  face  in  answer  to  some 
speech  from  a  lady  nearer  him.  The  attitude  of 
the  whole  party  puzzled  him,  and  he  sought  them 
out  after  dinner  purposely,  pausing  to  say  a  few 
words  in  his  character  of  host  as  he  did  to  every 
one  on  board.  Mrs.  Desmond  was  sitting  in  her 
deck-chair  again,  listening  to  the  band  ;  the  girl 
was  next  her,  her  eyes  straying  among  the  passen- 
gers promenading  to  and  fro,  her  attitude  as  uncon- 
scious as  if  Amyas  had  not  stopped  at  all. 

"  I  am  afraid  you  are  too  near  the  music  to  be 
pleasant,"  he  said,  with  a  lift  of  his  cap. 

"  Not  at  all,"  said  Mrs.  Desmond,  with  complete 
civility,  but  none  of  the  friendliness  which  begins 
an  acquaintance.  "  How  well  they  play  !  We  are 
enjoying  it  so  much." 

"  Yes,  they  are  gettin'  their  chance  now,  and 
makin'  much  of  it.  When  it  comes  to  rougher 
weather  they  are  not  quite  such  good  performers," 
said  Amyas,  smiling. 

"  I  suppose  not.  It  is  beautiful  weather  certainly, 
but  really  quite  fresh  to-night.  Laurie,  I  really 
think  you  would  be  wiser  to  get  a  wrap  of  some  sort." 

"  Perhaps  I  should,"  returned  the  girl  composedly, 
and  rose  at  once  and  went  down  to  the  cabins. 

Laurie — Laurie  Desmond.  Amyas  repeated  it 
aimlessly  to  himself  as  he  walked  away  to  other 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  223 

groups  where  he  was  evidently  more  welcome.  He 
wondered  whether  he  had  ever  heard  the  name  be- 
fore, that  it  seemed  so  familiar,  and  then  he  remem- 
bered Nell's  letter.  The  recollection  distinctly 
pleased  him ;  he  had  a  right  of  acquaintance  with 
this  supremely  indifferent  young  lady,  and  would 
exercise  it.  Let  the  Desmonds  stand  as  far  off  as 
they  chose,  they  should  at  least  suffer  him  to  speak 
to  Laurie  to  some  extent.  Having  aggravated 
them  he  had  no  intention  of  pursuing  the  acquaint- 
ance further,  for  he  did  not  think  the  girl  would  be 
to  his  taste. 

The  carrying  out  of  his  scheme,  even  to  men- 
tioning Nell,  however,  was  not  so  easy  as  it  seemed. 
Laurie  was  singularly  elusive ;  he  could  not  inter- 
rupt her  in  a  game  of  deck  quoits,  nor  could  he  be- 
gin the  attack  down  the  length  of  the  table  at  meals, 
and  for  some  days  it  chanced  that  he  said  nothing 
of  his  knowledge  of  her.  Her  perfectly  composed 
manner  never  betrayed  the  fact  that  she  knew  with 
absolute  horror  and  dread  whenever  he  passed  near 
her,  and  wondered  if  she  could  ever  bring  herself  to 
demand  a  tete-a-tete  in  which  to  tell  him  of  that 
grim  tragedy  at  Bulawayo  and  the  danger  pursuing 
him. 

"  I  think  our  Captain  is  the  most  objectionable 
man  I  ever  met,"  she  said  frankly  to  Mrs.  Desmond. 
"  There  is  no  need  for  uncle  to  warn  us  against  him 
— he  is  a  warning  in  himself." 

"  H'm,"  said  her  aunt  shrewdly.  "  I  suppose  you 
saw  him  with  Mrs.  Langly  last  night.  So  did  I ; 


224  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

but  it  was  the  most  unexpected  ill-luck  for  him  that 
we  passed  when  we  did.  To  do  him  justice  he 
chose  his  time  and  place  well — it  was  twenty  to  one 
against  their  being  caught." 

"  Please  don't,  aunty.  It  was  all  too  disgusting  to 
discuss." 

"  My  dear  Laurie,  don't  be  childish !  You  are 
over-young  in  some  things.  Mrs.  Langly  likes  it, 
and  that  is  nearly  enough  excuse  for  a  man.  I  have 
a  suspicion  that  he  sits  with  his  hand  on  her  knee 
during  meals ! " 

"  Aunty ! " 

"  Well,  they  are  next  each  other,  my  dear,  and 
it's  odd  if  they  avoid  all  contact,  considering  the 
type  of  man  that  Captain  Amyas  is.  He  does  not 
attract  me,  however,  any  more  than  he  does  you — 
he  reminds  me  of  an  over-fed,  thoroughbred  tom- 
cat. Here  he  comes  along  the  deck,  looking  as  if 
he  purred,  and  all  the  women  stroking  him  in  fancy 
as  he  passes  !  " 

In  spite  of  herself  Laurie  laughed  a  vexed  laugh 
just  as  Amyas  reached  them.  There  was  an  empty 
chair  next  her,  and  he  dropped  into  it.  She  blamed 
herself,  and  laid  it  down  to  her  involuntary  hilarity, 
but  her  aunt's  simile  had  been  irresistible. 

"  Do  you  know  I  can  almost  claim  a  former  ac- 
quaintance with  you,  Miss  Desmond?"  he  said, 
turning  on  her  before  she  could  quite  recover  her- 
self. The  corners  of  her  mouth  quivered,  and 
settled  into  extreme  gravity,  however,  as  her  serene 
eyes  met  his. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  225 

"  I  had  a  letter  from  a  mutual  friend  about  you 
some  months  ago,  tellin'  me  you  were  comin'  to 
Africa." 

"  Miss  Culverton  ?"  she  said  quietly,  in  his  pause. 

«  Yes." 

"  I  met  her  in  Devonshire  while  I  was  staying 
there  this  year.  I  remember  her  mentioning  your 
name." 

He  looked  at  her  quickly.  In  that  case  why  did 
he  find  himself  out  in  the  cold,  with  her  as  well  as 
her  people?  Nell,  to  judge  from  her  letter,  had 
said  no  ill  of  him ;  she  had  done  her  best  to  affect 
an  acquaintance.  His  eyes  met  Laurie's,  held  them 
a  moment,  and  wavered.  In  her  heart  the  girl  said, 
"  Coward !  he  cannot  even  face  a  clean- minded 
woman  who  is  not  under  his  subjection."  But  she 
was  incorrect,  if  not  over-harsh.  D'Arcy  could 
not  face  her  physically,  with  her  soul  in  arms  as  it 
was  then,  unless  his  own  blood  were  hot.  The 
ultra-response  in  him  to  the  force  of  animal  mag- 
netism made  him  waver.  Physically,  he  could  not 
— mentally,  he  faced  and  challenged  her.  What  did 
she  mean,  this  girl  with  the  grey  eyes  who  regarded 
him  with  unspoken  aversion  ?  He  carried  the  prob- 
lem away  when  he  left  her,  and  brooded  on  it. 

Fate  had  on  the  whole  been  kind  to  D'Arcy 
Amyas  in  that  he  had  always  been  within  reach  of 
the  thing  that  attracted  him — or  perhaps  in  that  he 
had  been  contented  with  the  fruit  within  his  grasp. 
The  women  he  had  wanted — and  won — had  been 
somewhat  of  a  type,  and  had  rarely  left  him  to  make 


226  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

all  the  advances.  Up  till  now  he  had  never  come 
in  absolute  conflict  with  a  nice  discrimination  such 
as  had  looked  at  him  out  of  those  grey  eyes  which 
began  to  haunt  him  like  a  reproof.  Probably  there 
had  been  many  Laurie  Desmonds  on  board  during 
past  voyages,  who  had  passed  him  by  in  silent  con- 
demnation, but  as  he  had  not  troubled  about  them 
it  had  not  touched  his  self-satisfaction.  Now  that  a 
chance  thing — Nell's  letter — had  drawn  his  atten- 
tion, and  he  found  himself  in  a  cul-de-sac  as  far  as 
pursuing  any  intimacy  with  Miss  Desmond  was  con- 
cerned, he  fancied  that  he  was  face  to  face  with  a 
unique  experience. 

He  did  not  give  it  up.  He  tried  again  and  yet 
again,  and  the  result  never  differed.  Polite  indiffer- 
ence trembled  on  the  verge  of  an  absolute  snub 
when  he  declined  to  be  driven  away,  and  to  a  man 
of  his  habits  and  experience  it  was  almost  incredible. 
Why  did  not  the  girl  like  him  ?  Why  should  this 
one  of  all  womenkind  stand  aloof?  He  did  not 
realize  that  Laurie's  type  had  always  stood  aloof 
from  him,  and  that  therefore  he  was  seeing  it  now 
for  the  first  time. 

She  would  hardly  accept  little  favours  from  him 
even,  or  if  forced  to  do  so  showed  resentment 
rather  than  gratitude.  He  found  out  by  chance 
that  she  had  been  given  one  of  the  smaller  cabins 
with  a  lady  who  was  by  no  means  a  sailor.  It  was 
no  doubt  not  very  pleasant,  but  Laurie  was  too  old 
a  traveller  to  be  put  out  by  it  to  any  great  extent 
— she  had  not  even  tried  to  persuade  the  purser  or 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  227 

the  chief  steward  to  find  her  another,  knowing  that 
the  boat  was  fairly  full.  A  my  as,  when  he  learned 
the  situation,  asked  her  off-hand  if  she  would  not 
rather  be  alone. 

"  It  does  not  matter,"  said  the  girl,  with  a  rather 
proud  surprise.  "  Mrs.  Johnson  is  really  not  in  my 
way,  poor  thing  !  " 

"  It  cannot  be  very  comfortable  anyway,"  he  said 
quietly.  "  I  will  see  that  it  is  altered." 

"  It  is  very  kind  of  you — but  there  is  no  necessity 
to  trouble ! " 

"  I  promised  Nell  Culverton  to  see  what  I  could 
do  to  make  the  voyage  passable,  if  we  fell  in  with 
each  other,"  he  said  with  the  smile  that  drew  end- 
less lines  round  his  eyes.  Laurie  was  not  looking 
at  him  ;  he  could  therefore  read  the  suggestive  set 
of  her  lips  at  his  leisure. 

"  Come,  Miss  Desmond,  you  may  at  least  let  me 
make  you  physically  comfortable,"  he  said  in  the 
curious  characteristic  voice  that  made  her  shrink — 
not  from  dislike  of  it  in  itself,  but  because  it  was 
indissolubly  connected  with  him,  and  seemed  some- 
how a  part  of  his  personality. 

She  bent  her  head  for  all  acceptance  of  his  offer, 
and  by  and  by  found  herself  in  possession  of  one  of 
the  roomiest  cabins  on  the  ship — a  cabin  as  large 
as  the  staterooms,  which  had  been  locked  up  be- 
cause nobody  sufficiently  important  had  demanded 
it.  When  he  asked  her  if  she  were  more  comfort- 
able in  her  new  quarters,  she  thanked  him,  but  still 
with  the  chill  on, 


228  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  Are  you  never  goin'  to  be  friends  with  me  ?  " 
he  said,  lingering  after  her  brief  formal  acknowledg- 
ment had  tacitly  dismissed  him.  "  You  ought  to, 
for  Nell's  sake  !  " 

The  attack  was  so  sudden  and  unlocked  for  that 
she  coloured,  from  the  curve  of  her  soft  brown  hair 
to  her  firm  chin.  It  was  a  sign  of  weakness,  and 
he  exulted  in  it. 

"  Why  won't  you  be  friends,  Miss  Laurie  ?  "  he 
said  hurriedly,  his  voice  taking  its  hoarse  note  of 
emotion. 

Captain  Amyas'  friendship  ! 

"  I  am  sorry  I  cannot  offer  you  anything  but  the 
acquaintance  which  chance  has  forced  on  us  ! "  said 
the  girl  distantly,  and  turned  away  and  left  him. 

He  set  his  teeth  in  an  ugly  fashion,  and  his  eyes 
looked  sinister.  Something  of  the  braced  feeling 
which  his  nerves  took  under  danger  affected  him 
now.  He  walked  off  to  his  cabin  thinking,  and  by 
and  by  went  up  to  the  chart-room  and  thought 
still.  It  was  a  fair  blue  day ;  Amyas  stood  aim- 
lessly turning  over  the  leaves  of  the  log-book,  but 
he  was  not  following  the  entries.  Outside,  the 
wind  sang  in  the  rigging,  that  little  intoxicating 
song  to  which  pulses  leap  and  conscience  seems  to 
go  reeling  down  the  distance — and  the  sun  shone 
on  the  wide  clean  decks  of  his  great  boat,  the  little 
realm  where  he  was  king  and  lord — with  one  sub- 
ject at  any  rate  whom  he  could  not  bend  to  do  him 
homage!  The  swing  of  the  boat  under  his  feet 
was  a  joy  to  him  as  she  dipped  and  lifted  a  little  on 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  229 

the  swell  like  the  motion  of  a  thoroughbred  canter- 
ing over  a  grass  course.  Amyas  had  never  lost  the 
glamour  of  the  sea  entirely ;  the  eternal  blue  ring 
that  made  his  universe  for  nine  months  at  least  of 
his  year  was  the  best  in  life  to  him,  in  spite  of  its 
monotony.  As  he  leaned  against  the  wide  shelf, 
turning  the  pages  of  the  log  idly,  he  was  in  a  state 
of  complete  physical  satisfaction — with  one  crumpled 
rose-leaf  to  mar  his  pleasure. 

Laurie  Desmond  was  the  rose-leaf,  and  she  had 
quite  unintentionally  roused  an  irritated  interest  in 
herself  that  was  rapidly  quickening  into  excitement 
within  the  narrow  bounds  of  'board  ship  life,  which 
is  the  best  forcing-house  in  the  world  for  such 
things.  Amyas  could  not  get  away  from  his  half- 
reluctant  attraction — Laurie  could  not  get  away 
from  her  distaste.  They  were  forced  to  act  on  each 
other  like  the  friction  which  produces  furnace  heat 
in  time.  The  girl  certainly  never  gave  him  the 
least  opportunity  to  make  any  way  with  her,  and 
her  people  seemed  equally  intent  on  preventing  it, 
he  acknowledged  savagely.  It  was  therefore  a  sur- 
prise which  was  almost  a  shock  when  Miss  Des- 
mond one  day  knocked  at  his  cabin  door  and  came 
in  deliberately  when  she  saw  him  alone. 

"  This  is  an  unexpected  pleasure ! "  he  said, 
swinging  his  armchair  round  for  her  a  little.  "  I 
didn't  expect  you  to  ever  honour  me  so  far,  Miss 
Laurie !  I  should  have  asked  you  long  ago  if  I 
had." 

"  Yes,"  said   the   girl  simply.     She  particularly 


230  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

disliked  Amyas'  way  of  using  the  less  formal  title 
"  Miss  Laurie,"  well  knowing  that  it  needed  a  hair's 
breadth  only  to  encourage  him  to  drop  the  "  Miss." 
Her  full  name  was  "  St.  Lawrence,"  the  whim  of  an 
eccentric  father  who  had  lived — and  loved — in  a 
place  of  that  name.  It  had  been  softened  to  Laurie 
for  home  use,  and  to  hear  it  from  Amyas'  lips 
seemed  to  her  to  defile  it.  She  let  it  pass  on  this 
occasion  only  because  she  did  not  wish  to  lose  time. 

"  I  have  something  very  difficult  to  say  to  you," 
she  said  in  a  characteristically  direct  fashion.  "  But 
it  seems  to  me  so  serious  that  I  could  not  have  it 
on  my  mind,  if — anything  happened." 

He  looked  at  her  keenly,  his  light  brows  knotting 
over  his  gloomy  eyes,  but  he  said  nothing. 

"  You  took  a  girl  named  Cherry  Benson  to 
Durban,"  began  Laurie  hurriedly.  She  could  not 
look  at  him,  and  the  blood  rushed  away  from  her 
face,  leaving  it  whiter  and  whiter  as  she  went  on. 
"  I  am  not  wishing  to  refer  to — to  your  private 
concerns,  I  assure  you.  I  wish  I  had  not  to  speak 
of  the  subject  at  all.  The  only  thing  necessary  to 
be  said  is  that  she  is  in  terrible  trouble,  and — and 
her  father  has  sworn  to  take  the  life  of  the  man 
who  caused  it — somehow." 

His  face  went  a  dull  red  as  hers  had  gone  white, 
and  his  eyes  were  resentful.  But  her  obvious  ear- 
nestness struck  another  chord  in  him  after  the  first 
shock  of  her  words.  He  felt  the  sickness  of  facing 
danger,  and  gasped  before  the  courage  which  always 
followed  it. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  231 

"  He  does  not  know  who  you  are — yet,"  she  went 
on,  her  voice  dropping  lower  and  lower.  "  But  it 
must  come  out  sooner  or  later.  You  can  see  for 
yourself." 

He  moistened  his  lips,  and  drew  his  breath  again 
with  returning  hardihood. 

"  The  girl "  he  began. 

"  No ! "  she  flashed  out  at  him,  her  grey  eyes 
blazing.  "  Women  are  not  such  cowards — they 
leave  that  to  men  !  They  love — and  if  they  fall  it  is 
for  love,  not  for  vice.  If  Cherry  died  she  would  die 
with  your  name  unspoken." 

"  Yet  you  knew  ! " 

"  She  told  me,  poor  little  girl ! — poor,  poor  little 
girl ! "  The  tears  came  suddenly,  quenching  the 
fierce  anger  in  her  eyes.  "  Oh,  why  did  you  do 
it?  "  she  said,  her  voice  like  a  moan  of  pain.  "  Can 
you  realize  how  young  she  is  ?  It  means  all  her 
life  gone ! " 

His  face  grew  dark  red  again  and  more  sullen. 
His  eyes  were  half  furtive,  half  appealing  as  they 
looked  at  her. 

"  I  suppose  you  think  me  a  blackguard  !  "  was  all 
he  said. 

She  looked  him  squarely  between  the  eyes. 
"  Yes  ! "  she  answered  simply. 

He  shrank  a  little,  and  gave  a  slight  uneasy  laugh. 
"  Then  there  is  no  more  to  be  said.  I  suppose  I 
must  thank  you  for  warnin'  me,  as  you  seem  to 
have  taken  some  probably  braggin'  threat  for  deadly 
earnest.  By  the  way,  considerin'  your  opinion  of 


232  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

me  I  can't  quite  see  why  you  took  all  this  trouble. 
I  should  have  thought  another  blackguard  wiped 
off  the  face  of  the  earth  would  have  been  a  good 
riddance,  from  your  point  of  view  !  " 

"  You  are  a  fellow-creature,  and  a  human  being," 
she  said  quietly,  with  some  disdain  in  her  level  eye- 
lids. "  I  would  not  let  a  dog  go  to  a  death  I  saw 
waiting  for  it  without  making  an  effort  to  save  it. 
It  does  not  matter  to  me  what  you  are  morally — it 
is  not  my  business  ;  as  I  honestly  believe  that  you 
are  in  danger  of  your  life  I  thought  it  my  only 
course  to  warn  you.  It  has  not  been  a  pleasant  task 
— I  wish  the  whole  matter  had  never  come  into  my 
life ! " 

There  was  no  mistaking  the  truth  of  that  state- 
ment. He  winced  inwardly  while  he  stood  aside 
with  perfect  courtesy  to  let  her  pass.  "  Thank  you," 
he  said,  and  lifted  the  curtain  for  her  to  leave  the 
cabin  as  if  she  had  been  a  princess  who  had  hon- 
oured him  with  a  visit. 

Then  he  sat  down  to  the  writing-table  again,  and 
leaned  his  head  on  his  hands,  thinking.  It  was 
strange  how  things  chanced — that  this  girl  of  all 
others  should  be  the  one  to  find  him  out.  It  ex- 
plained her  attitude  towards  himself  entirely,  to 
Amyas'  mind,  for  his  philosophy  did  not  admit  of  a 
natural  shrinking  or  repugnance  from  a  woman  to  a 
man — certainly  not  to  him  when  he  had  bestowed 
his  favour.  As  to  Cherry,  he  was  sorry — very 
sorry,  because  he  had  not  deliberately  gone  to  work 
to  harm  her.  He  had  merely  followed  his  inclina- 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  233 

tions,  not  thinking — not  calculating,  indeed,  whether 
in  her  case  it  might  not  end  in  disaster.  The 
women  with  whom  he  had  mostly  had  to  do  had 
known  how  to  take  care  of  themselves — Cherry  had 
simply  come  to  grief  through  inexperience,  from 
his  point  of  view.  It  was  a  pity,  but  he  did  not 
rise  to  the  high-flown  idea  that  he  had  ruined  her 
life.  She  would  get  over  it  and  live  it  down,  par- 
ticularly in  such  an  untrammeled  place  as  the  Col- 
ony, and  would  know  better  next  time.  As  to  marry- 
ing her,  the  thought  never  entered  his  head.  He 
could  not  marry — unless  he  wished  to  break  the  tie 
between  himself  and  Lady  Arthur  Hyde  to  which 
he  attributed  most  of  his  "  luck."  He  had  reforged 
that  tie  at  the  maiden-voyage  luncheon  five  years 
ago,  and  had  been  in  closer  communication  with  his 
"  Good  Angel "  since,  than  he  was  before.  Lady 
Arthur  had  made  a  voyage  in  the  Princess,  and  he 
had  visited  at  her  house  in  London,  besides  letters 
which  passed  between  them.  D'Arcy  wrote  well, 
and  the  lady  was  no  less  worthy  a  correspondent 
They  were  daintily  careful  not  to  incriminate  any 
one,  just  as  when  they  met  they  kept  their  intercourse 
with  a  carefully  conventional  side  to  the  world. 

No,  he  could  not  marry.  He  did  not  wish  to, 
even  though  it  had  been  a  more  suitable  woman 
than  Cherry.  As  to  Benson,  he  might  never  find 
out;  or  if  he  did  he  could  waste  his  wrath  in  blind 
threats.  Amyas  had  no  wish  to  encounter  his  old 
mate  in  his  wrath,  or  to  have  a  scene ;  it  would  be 
extremely  disagreeable,  if  nothing  worse.  But  he 


234  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

was  not  inclined  to  overvalue  Benson  or  his  threats, 
though  for  the  moment  Laurie's  own  terror  had  in- 
fected him.  He  could  not  see,  as  she  did,  the  brutal, 
baffled  face  in  her  memory,  snarling  like  a  dog's — 
like  a  dog,  too,  hunting  down  its  prey  with  an  in- 
satiable thirst  for  the  quarry's  life. 

On  the  whole  the  disagreeable  incident  began  to 
fade  out  of  its  first  vividness  in  D'Arcy's  mind, 
and  indeed  to  leave  a  certain  satisfaction  behind  it. 
It  established  an  understanding  between  him  and 
St.  Lawrence  Desmond,  who  at  least  knew  the  worst 
of  him — at  all  events  in  her  own  opinion.  That  it 
would  fatally  prejudice  her  against  him  he  did  not 
really  believe ;  women  had  always  been  lenient  in 
their  judgment  of  him,  and  though  their  knowledge 
had  not  been  quite  so  emphatic  and  startling  per- 
haps as  Laurie's,  still  they  must  have  recognized  his 
lapses  from  virtue.  He  found  the  girl's  undesired 
discovery  about  him  rather  piquant  on  the  whole ; 
he  knew  instinctively  that  she  would  keep  his  secret, 
but  it  was  hers  too  now  none  the  less,  and  she  could 
not  get  rid  of  it. 

Laurie  Desmond,  as  she  left  the  cabin,  felt  her 
knees  tremble  under  her  and  her  breath  came  short. 
In  the  excitement  of  speaking  she  had  not  recog- 
nized what  a  delicate  subject  she  was  handling,  but 
as  she  looked  back  she  quivered  at  her  own  au- 
dacity. Amyas'  half-shamed,  half-defiant  air  re- 
curred to  her  as  the  male  protest  against  feminine 
interference,  and  she  was  thankful  to  him  for  his 
silence  so  far  as  words  went.  He  could  have  said 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  235 

intolerable  things  that  would  have  humbled  her  in 
her  turn.  She  did  him  the  justice  to  acknowledge 
that  in  outward  semblance  he  was  a  gentleman. 
He  could  have  flatly  denied  it  too,  and  he  had  not ; 
denial  would  not  have  convinced  her,  for  Cherry's 
confession  had  borne  the  brand  of  hideous  truth, 
but  she  felt  that  if  he  had  bragged  it  out  it  would 
have  been  a  step  yet  lower  in  his  degradation.  She 
was  too  young  a  woman  to  make  any  appeal  to 
him  for  the  girl ;  the  desperate  effort  to  speak  to 
him  of  the  catastrophe  at  all  had  been  as  much 
as  she  could  do,  and  having  warned  him  she  washed 
her  hands  of  the  affair  without  daring  to  suggest 
the  remedy  of  marriage. 

There  was  no  alteration  in  her  manner  towards 
him  from  that  day,  except  an  increasing  silence,  but 
she  found  to  her  relief  that  he  no  longer  persisted 
in  talking  to  her.  If  he  joined  a  group  where  she 
was  he  did  not  address  a  single  remark  to  her, 
though  he  chatted  as  usual  with  those  around.  A 
little  feeling  of  disdainful  pity  began  to  lighten  her 
opinion  of  him ;  once  or  twice  she  caught  him 
looking  at  her,  furtively,  she  thought,  and  nearly 
broke  her  own  guard  by  trying  to  reassure  him  with 
a  brief  sentence.  She  thought  he  feared  betrayal, 
and  that  she  never  intended.  Another  cause  for 
her  unbending  was  the  memory  of  Nell's  story  as 
they  sat  in  the  moist  Devon  lane,  with  the  languid 
sunshine  and  the  balmy  airs  round  them.  Laurie 
remembered  Dolly  and  the  boy  who  loved  her,  and 
her  heart  softened  to  Amyas  for  the  sake  of  his 


236  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

former  self.  It  was  the  tragedy  of  his  loss  which 
had  first  driven  him  downwards ;  "  I  saw  that  he 
was  only  a  devil ! "  Nell  had  said,  and  Laurie's 
heart  began  to  ache  for  pity.  She  liked  the  pres- 
ent Amyas  no  better  than  before,  but  her  woman- 
hood expanded  its  quality  of  ready  forgiveness,  and 
found  generous  excuses.  She  was  beginning  to 
learn  the  lesson  that  Nell  and  Mrs.  Desmond  had 
foreseen  for  her. 

D'Arcy  was  quick  to  notice  signs  in  his  favour, 
but  he  took  advantage  of  them  slowly.  He  still 
preserved  his  humble  attitude,  conscious  that  he 
had  something  more  delicate  to  deal  with  than  his 
experience  had  held  before.  Without  recognizing 
a  beginning,  Laurie  drifted  into  a  salutation  day  by 
day — "  Good-morning,"  or  "  Good-night,"  bound 
her  to  nothing.  But  it  did  not  stop  there,  of  course; 
remarks  of  mere  courtesy  lengthened  into  brief  con- 
versations as  they  met  on  the  common  ground  of 
the  promenade  deck  or  the  saloons ;  conversations 
developed  into  arguments,  and  there  D'Arcy 's  good 
genius  came  to  his  rescue.  His  life  had  given  him 
opportunities  to  think,  and  he  spoke  as  one  having 
authority.  Laurie,  as  against  her  will,  was  drawn 
into  appreciation  and  enjoyment  by  those  quasi- 
artistic  qualities  which  lay  at  the  back  of  Amyas' 
nature  as  a  second  line  of  defence. 

"Your  uncle  thinks  you  talk  too  much  to  the 
Captain,"  said  Mrs.  Desmond  with  a  dry  smile, 
when  the  boat  was  yet  some  days  from  Eng- 
land. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  237 

Laurie  coloured  resentfully.  "  You  know  I  do 
not  like  him,"  she  said. 

"  Well,  other  people  cannot  guess  that  when 
they  see  you  together.  They  never  notice  Captain 
Amyas  with  a  woman  but  they  suppose  he  is  making 
love  to  her !  " 

"  He  never  attempts  such  a  thing  with  me  at 
least,  whatever  he  may  do  to  others.  If  he  had 
said  a  word " 

"  I  know.  You  would  have  shut  him  up,  and 
turned  your  back  on  him  for  evermore.  He  is 
clever  enough  to  know  that.  What  does  he  talk 
about  ?  " 

"  Anything  and  everything  in  heaven  and  earth, 
except  personalities.  He  is  really  a  thinker,  and 
something  of  an  artist.  Have  you  seen  his  sketches?" 

"  No ;  he  has  not  invited  me  into  his  cabin  as 
yet ! " 

"  Aunty  !  I  should  not  have  gone.  He  brought 
his  sketch-book  out  here  one  morning  in  the  face 
of  the  whole  deck.  It  was  perfectly  public." 

"  Oh  yes,  of  course.  I  forgot  the  man's  feline 
subtleties.  I  don't  suppose  he  will  offer  you  the 
hospitality  of  his  own  room,  unless  he  does  it  at  the 
last  as  a  final  try  on." 

Laurie  did  not  answer,  and  the  colour  in  her  face 
her  aunt  mistook  for  anger.  Her  own  intrusion 
into  Amyas'  cabin  she  had  never  mentioned,  and 
Mrs.  Desmond  had  not  been  on  deck  at  the  time. 
To  explain  the  whole  thing  would  have  involved 
Cherry,  and  a  yet  blacker  mark  against  Amyas' 


238  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

character.  Laurie  did  not  realize  that  she  was  try- 
ing to  shield  him,  but  it  had  come  to  that. 

He  exercised  a  certain  fascination  over  her  that 
was  hardly  to  be  called  liking ;  but  his  voice  with  its 
curious  accent  had  begun  to  linger  in  her  memory, 
and  his  presence  made  her  vaguely  unhappy.  He 
had  never  attempted  so  much  as  a  personal  remark, 
though  there  were  few  things  they  had  not  discussed 
as  generalities,  until  the  evening  before  they  reached 
Southampton.  It  was  a  cold  night,  and  white  with 
moonlight.  Laurie  was  sitting  beside  Mrs.  Des- 
mond, who  was  chatting  with  another  lady;  the 
girl  was  not  talking  herself,  not  even  reading.  She 
sat  with  her  face  turned  to  the  toss  of  the  black 
water  polished  with  moonlight,  and  her  thoughts 
drifted  restlessly  to  her  past  and  her  present.  She 
seemed  to  have  learned  something  during  this  trip, 
and  to  be  passing  from  an  elementary  existence  to 
a  more  emphatic  one.  It  was  painful,  and  yet  she 
recognized  its  necessity.  She  had  up  till  now  only 
half  realized  a  world  which  she  had  known  so  well 
in  theory,  and  was  wrestling  to  get  free  of  her  own 
swaddling  bands. 

Her  face,  framed  in  the  fluffy  shawl  thrown  over 
her  head,  looked  grave  to  sternness  as  she  sat  there, 
not  frowning,  but  with  something  like  a  shadow  on 
the  clear  forehead,  above  which  her  soft  hair  was 
parted  on  one  side,  and  fell  in  a  thick  wave  back 
over  her  ears.  Captain  Amyas,  passing  up  the 
deck,  paused  by  her  side  and  looked  down  at  her. 

"  I  have  found  the  drawin'  you  wanted  to  see, 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  239 

Miss  Desmond,"  he  said,  "  if  you  care  to  come  and 
look  at  it." 

"Where  is  it?" 

"  In  my  cabin." 

Mrs.  Desmond  turned  her  head  and  gave  her 
niece  a  scarcely  perceptible  glance.  She  remem- 
bered with  some  amusement  her  own  prophecy. 
Amyas  was  really  "  trying  it  on  at  the  last  mo- 
ment" !  Laurie  remembered  too,  and  hesitated  for 
just  the  time  during  which  she  looked  straight  up 
into  his  eyes  as  he  stood  above  her.  There  was 
not  so  much  an  appeal  there  as  a  demand.  "  I 
have  something  to  tell  you — I  want  to  speak  to 
you,"  he  said,  without  opening  his  lips.  She  always 
wondered  afterwards  whether  it  were  some  power  of 
animal  magnetism  that  made  her  rise  from  her  seat 
and  follow  him.  She  was  not  given  to  impulses, 
and  up  till  then  he  had  never  had  the  slightest  in- 
fluence over  her. 

Mrs.  Desmond  looked  after  them,  and  hesitated 
in  her  turn.  The  action  was  so  unprecedented 
from  Laurie  that  she  hardly  knew  what  to  do. 
Her  husband  would  not  like  it,  but  the  girl  was  too 
old  to  treat  her  as  a  child  and  follow  her,  and  too 
independent  besides.  Mrs.  Desmond  leaned  back 
in  her  chair  again,  and  continued  her  conversation 
with  a  mental  glance  at  her  watch.  In  five  minutes, 
if  Laurie  did  not  return,  she  must  go  and  see  what 
they  were  doing. 

A  few  rough  water-coloured  drawings  of  the  na- 
tives of  Madagascar  lay  on  the  table  in  the  cabin. 


240  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

The  women's  faces  were  handsome,  with  fairer  skins 
than  Laurie  had  expected,  and  blue  eyes.  As  she 
took  one  in  her  hand  she  was  conscious  of  an  un- 
dercurrent of  excitement,  and  a  premonition  that 
this  trivial  reason  for  her  presence  here  was  by  no 
means  all.  Amyas  had  laid  the  sketches  on  the 
table  as  an  obvious  excuse ;  but  he  had  asked  her 
to  come  because  he  had  something  to  say.  She 
wondered  suddenly  if  it  had  anything  to  do  with 
Cherry,  and  glanced  round  the  cabin,  while  still 
holding  the  drawings  in  her  hand,  with  a  reluctant 
realization  of  how  horridly  familiar  this  place  must 
have  been  to  the  little  sobbing  figure  that  haunted 
her  thoughts  like  a  nightmare.  There  was  nothing 
in  the  surroundings  to  jar  on  her  taste,  and  every- 
thing to  satisfy  it,  for  Amyas'  native  love  of  art 
stood  him  in  good  stead  here.  The  upholsteries 
were  all  in  dark  blue,  unobtrusive,  and  harmonious 
with  the  walnut  fittings  ;  a  kaross  made  of  the  skins 
of  the  Cape  jackal  was  flung  over  the  berth,  and 
there  were  engravings  on  the  walls — "  L'Angelus," 
which  Laurie  loved,  and  Turner's  "  Fighting  Temer- 
aire."  She  had  expected  nude  figures,  but  Amyas 
kept  his  appreciation  of  such  out  of  sight  of  the 
general  public.  He  was  no  fool. 

"  This  is  very  clever,"  she  said  with  mechanical 
courtesy,  laying  down  one  sketch  and  taking  up 
another.  She  did  not  look  at  him,  for  she  was  still 
thinking  of  the  room  which  was  so  intimately  his, 
and  which  she  had  not  noticed  on  her  first  visit  to 
it,  on  which  occasion  her  purpose  had  absorbed  her. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  241 

How  was  it  that  with  such  a  mind  as  he  must  have 
he  could  conceal  its  innate  coarseness,  and  feign  an 
appreciation  of  the  grave  purity  of  "  L'Angelus," 
she  wondered !  Laurie's  very  single-mindedness 
hampered  her  in  judging  such  a  complex  character 
as  Amyas'. 

He  followed  her  up  to  the  table,  and  took  the 
drawings  away  from  her  suddenly,  with  a  complete 
alteration  in  his  manner.  The  indifference  of  every- 
day intercourse  was  gone  ;  he  was  horribly  in  ear- 
nest, as  she  noticed  with  vague  surprise — noticed  too 
that  it  gave  him  a  new  and  dominant  power. 
There  is  no  strength  quite  so  imperious  and  over- 
whelming as  that  of  a  nervous  nature  which  does 
not  always  possess  it.  It  is  like  a  fire  from  the 
gods,  given  only  in  moments  of  inspiration,  and 
during  its  brief  periods  it  sweeps  all  before  it. 

"  I  want  to  speak  to  you  about  the  last  time  you 
came  in  here,"  he  said  with  tense  resolution. 
Laurie  had  expected  that,  and  was  ready  for  it ;  but 
for  the  next  words  she  was  not  prepared.  "  I've 
been  thinkin'  it  over,  and  I  want  to  know  why  you 
did  it  ?  " 

"  Why  I  did  it  ?  "  she  echoed.  "  Because — be- 
cause I  thought  I  ought.  I  believed  there  was 
danger." 

"  Well,  what  did  that  matter  to  you  ?  Why 
should  you  concern  yourself  with  it  ?  " 

She  wished  with  all  her  soul  that  she  could  give 
way  to  the  little  scornful  laugh  she  had  heard  other 
women  use  like  a  two-edged  sword.  A  ready  laugh 


242  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

is  a  keen  weapon,  and  she  who  can  use  it  easily  and 
naturally  is  armed  at  all  points.  Laurie,  from  train- 
ing, never  laughed  audibly ;  she  was  quick  to  see 
humour,  and  could  smile  readily,  but  she  rarely 
laughed  outright.  She  could  not  now,  when  she 
most  wished  it.  She  stood  still  and  felt  her  own 
helplessness,  while  she  realized  that  Amyas  was 
construing  her  conscientious  warning  into  some 
special  interest  in  himself !  She  could  not  make 
him  understand  in  one  merciful  gleam  of  mockery. 
All  she  could  do  was  to  speak  in  a  stiff  constrained 
fashion  which  rather  defeated  its  own  ends. 

"  Common  humanity  made  it  my  concern.  Per- 
haps I  was  morbid  and  overstrained,  but  I  really 
thought — I  feared " 

"  I  can't  help  thinkin' — hopin' — that  you  did  it 
for  a  kinder  reason  ! "  The  words  came  with  a 
rush,  but  with  suppressed  passion,  and  she  found  to 
her  dismay  that  he  could  look  her  in  the  face  now  ! 
More,  that  she  had  to  turn  her  own  eyes  away. 

"  I  did  not ! — I  did  not !  "  she  repeated  in  con- 
fusion and  distress,  and  of  course  he  did  not  believe 
her. 

"  Are  you  sure,  Laurie  ?  " 

The  words  were  a  whisper  as  he  grasped  both  her 
hands  in  one  of  his  and  flung  his  arm  half  round 
her.  With  a  sickening  sense  of  shame — a  memory 
of  the  many  similar  scenes  this  cabin  must  have 
mutely  witnessed — she  drew  herself  free  and  stepped 
back,  her  shoulders  set  against  the  woodwork  of  the 
berth,  as  if  she  were  at  bay. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  243 

"  You  are  quite  mistaken. — I  don't  like  you — I  am 
ashamed  to  think  of  you  even  ! "  she  said  bluntly. 
"  I  warned  you  because  I  thought  it  right,  but  I 
hated  to  mix  myself  up  in  such  a  story,  and  I 
wanted  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  you  ! " 

He  remained  looking  at  her,  baffled  and  discon- 
certed. He  had  met  opposition  before,  and  over- 
come it.  But  it  was  the  opposition  of  intended 
yielding,  an  invitation  to  try  again.  This  was  hor- 
rified, blank  denial,  and  he  felt  it.  He  looked  at 
her  with  such  eyes  as  the  boy  D'Arcy  had  shown 
to  the  arbitrators  of  his  fate  many  years  ago,  when 
he  had  thought  that  they  threatened  to  refuse  him 
to  the  sea. 

"  Can't  you  ?  "  he  said  hoarsely.  "  I  want  you  so 
much !  I've  never  met  any  one  quite  like  you. 
You  don't  really  hate  me  ?  " 

She  pressed  herself  back  against  her  support, 
shrinking  from  the  outstretched  hand  that  sought 
to  touch  her,  and  she  answered  him  with  rigid 
honesty  as  the  only  defence  which  she  felt  to  be 
sure. 

"  No,  I  do  not  hate  you  exactly.  When  we  meet 
on  neutral  ground  I  try  to  forget  what  I — what  I 
know  about  you,  and  regard  you  as  any  other 
chance  acquaintance.  But  when  you  presume  to 
overstep  the  barrier  by  one  inch  I  cannot  help  re- 
membering, and  then — yes,  I  almost  loathe  you  ! 
Perhaps  you  cannot  understand,  and  I  have  no 
right  to  judge  you,  but  to  my  mind  you  are  not 
fit " 


244  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  Laurie  ! "  said  a  woman's  voice, — there  was  a 
tap  at  the  door ;  A  my  as  pulled  himself  together 
and  turned  round. 

"  Oh !  is  my  niece  here  ?  "  said  Mrs.  Desmond. 
"  Laurie  dear,  it  is  getting  quite  late  !  Come  along; 
we  shall  be  up  early  to-morrow." 

"  I  am  looking  at  Captain  Amyas'  sketches, 
aunty,"  said  the  girl  composedly.  "  I  am  coming 
now.  Good-night,  Captain." 

Mrs.  Desmond  turned  to  leave  the  cabin  ;  Laurie 
followed  her,  trying  to  pass  the  outstretched  hand 
in  her  way.  He  did  not  speak,  but  the  appeal  was 
none  the  less  insistent.  She  hesitated,  moved  back, 
and  held  out  her  own  indifferently.  Amyas  glanced 
at  the  retreating  lady,  who  might  turn  at  any 
moment ;  he  did  not  risk  bending  his  head  to  kiss 
the  resisting  hand,  but  lifting  it  before  she  guessed 
his  intention  he  laid  the  cool  palm  against  his  burnt, 
bearded  face  for  an  instant  before  she  could  snatch 
it  away.  It  seemed  to  her  in  her  furious  anger  that 
it  had  been  worse  than  a  kiss,  more  familiar. 

She  was  ever  afterwards  horribly  ashamed  of  the 
impulse  that  made  her  lock  her  cabin  door  that 
night,  but  that  final  incident  of  their  interview  had 
increased  her  distrust  of  Amyas  to  a  feeling  of  abso- 
lute fear,  and,  thanks  to  him,  she  had  the  cabin  to 
herself.  After  all  she  had  said,  he  had  dared 
to  take  a  liberty  with  her  that  no  man  in  her  life 
had  taken  heretofore.  She  was  accustomed  to  so 
far  overawe  the  opposite  sex  by  her  very  incredulity 
of  an  approach  without  invitation,  that  it  seemed 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  245 

to  her  that  D'Arcy  was  no  more  to  be  classed  with 
his  fellows  than  a  madman.  That  he  was  equally 
incapable  of  realizing  her  rebuffs  all  at  once  she 
did  not  understand.  Had  the  voyage  not  come  to 
an  end  the  following  day  she  would  have  told  Colo- 
nel Desmond  the  whole  story,  even  though  she  was 
reluctant  to  do  so,  and  put  the  matter  in  his  hands 
to  defend  her  from  further  annoyance.  As  it  hap- 
pened, however,  they  reached  England  without  any 
other  development  of  the  situation,  and  she  said 
good-bye  to  the  ship  and  all  its  memories  with  in- 
finite relief. 


CHAPTER  XV 

"  What  have  you  learned  ?    The  stress  of  the  shore, 

The  deep  sea's  desperate  strife, 
Some  secret  knowledge  of  men  and  things 
And  the  undertow  of  life. 

"  Found  you  no  happiness  anywhere 

In  the  countries  where  you  roved  ? 

Once,  only  once, — a  handful  of  nights — 

With  one  whom  I  met  and  loved." 

LAURENCE  HOPE 

IT  was  not  often  that  Fate  had  said  a  plain 
"  No  !  "  to  D'Arcy  Amyas.  He  had  been  some- 
what of  a  spoiled  child  in  trivial  ways,  and,  like  all 
spoiled  children,  a  sudden  curb  was  far  more  cruel 
to  him  than  to  those  used  to  restraint. 

When  Laurie  left  him  he  went  back  to  the  bridge 
— had  it  not  been  an  unusually  calm  passage  he 
would  have  been  there  all  the  evening — and  after  a 
few  words  with  the  two  Officers  then  on  duty  (for 
the  watch  was  doubled),  walked  off  by  himself  and 
stood  looking  out  over  the  black  water,  moon- 
crested,  cut  into  sharp  opaque  ridges.  He  was  not 
thinking  of  his  great  boat  and  the  fifteen  hundred 
lives  for  which  he  was  responsible,  at  the  moment. 
The  Princess  was  doing  her  duty,  making  her  way 
homeward  beneath  her  master's  foot  as  docilely  as  a 
perfectly-trained  steed.  The  mysterious  feeling  of 
being  in  touch  with  that  great  thunderous  mass  of 
solid  material  and  stored  force  never  left  him ;  it 
246 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  247 

comforted  him  a  little  now  as  the  obedient  Thing 
with  its  metaphorical  feminine  gender  swept  him 
through  the  rebellious  seas  holding  her  back.  His 
own  boat !  Something  of  a  consort  to  him  in  an 
intangible  way — a  lasting  tie  that  kept  his  love 
through  the  lighter  passions  which  bound  him  to 
successive  women  for  a  time. 

But  a  pang  went  through  him  at  the  memory  of 
his  last  final  failure.  He  had  set  a  half-reluctant 
desire  on  Laurie,  and  her  absolute  denial  had  fanned 
a  faint  flame  into  force  and  fury.  Why  should  this 
one  of  all  his  fancies  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  him  ?  He 
must  have  it — he  wanted  it  so  badly  /  The  old  im- 
perious craving  which  beset  him  when  he  thought 
he  might  be  denied  his  boyish  desire,  swept  back 
over  him  with  just  as  unreasonable  a  force.  Some 
of  his  impotent  anguish  when  he  lost  Dolly  owed 
its  sting  no  doubt  to  the  sense  that  his  passionate 
longing  was  hopeless ;  Dolly  was  out  of  his  reach 
forever,  and  he  could  not  regain  her  though  he 
wished  it  never  so  badly ! 

It  was  really  a  relief  to  him  when  the  Princess 
touched  land  and  Laurie  was  safely  gone  away  out 
of  his  life.  Her  presence  kept  up  the  fret  and  irri- 
tation ;  he  could  not  give  up  the  pursuit  of  his 
object,  or  believe  that  she  would  finally  refuse  him 
some  slight  mark  of  favour,  though  the  time  left 
them  was  so  short.  A  kiss  or  so,  the  melting  and 
yearning  of  the  cold  grey  eyes,  the  right  of  touch, 
and — it  was  one  and  the  same  to  D'Arcy  Amyas — 
the  license  of  touch  to  follow ;  that  was  all  he  could 


248  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

hope  to  snatch  in  a  few  hurried  moments.  But 
even  the  briefest  of  such  pleasures  was  beyond  his 
power  to  compass,  and  Laurie  left  the  boat  and 
went  away  untamed  and  relentless.  He  thrust  the 
memory  out  of  his  mind  when  he  was  no  longer 
kept  confident  by  her  actual  presence,  and  she  was 
equally  glad  to  forget  what  was  to  her  distasteful 
throughout.  So  they  went  their  several  ways, 
which  utterly  diverged,  and  left  no  visible  mark  of 
their  passing  intimacy  on  each  other's  personalities  ; 
yet  a  new  experience  had  come  to  one  of  them  at 
least,  though  unrealized  as  yet.  D'Arcy  would 
never  think  of  Laurie  Desmond  as  of  the  other 
women  in  his  life.  The  memory  might  gall  him, 
but  he  was  forced  to  set  her  apart  as  something 
that  had  shaken  his  own  self-confidence.  He  did 
not  believe  that  she  would  have  kept  her  attitude  of 
resistance  finally ;  but  the  fact  remained  that  she  had 
kept  it  during  their  short  acquaintance.  She  had 
set  up  a  new  standard  in  his  life  by  which  to  judge 
women,  and  he  accepted  it  in  spite  of  himself. 

Laurie's  life  lay  in  different  grooves  to  any 
Amyas  could  conceive,  and  dealt  with  old  interests 
in  which  he  had  no  part — she  found  it  easy  enough 
to  drop  his  mere  memory  as  she  would  have  done 
some  unclean  thing.  If  he  ever  recurred  to  her 
mind  it  was  with  a  momentary  surprise  at  herself 
that  she  had  endured  him  without  active  hatred, 
and  a  somewhat  reluctant  acknowledgment  of  his 
more  attractive  side.  For  Amyas'  worst  nature 
had  not  always  been  in  the  ascendant,  though  it 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  249 

was  strong  to  overwhelm  the  good  in  him  in  a 
crisis,  and  had  been  the  ruling  power  in  his  life. 
His  personal  courage  and  facility  of  resource  were 
the  only  obvious  traits  on  which  the  most  merciful 
critic  could  lay  stress,  and  they,  though  known  only 
to  himself,  hung  upon  a  slender  chance ;  but  it  was 
not  animal  attributes,  or  even  virtues,  that  Laurie 
recognized  in  him  as  something  likeable.  It  was 
the  D'Arcy  that  might  have  been — the  possible  de- 
velopment of  the  photograph  that  Nell  had  shown 
her,  that  she  fancied  she  recognized,  and  regretted  ; 
a  less  physically  healthy  man  perhaps,  but  one  with 
sounder  mind.  It  never  occurred  to  her  that  a 
nature  so  fatally  responsible  to  sex  could  have  been 
influenced  for  good  as  well  as  for  ill.  D'Arcy  was 
a  weak  man,  but  had  there  been  one  woman  in  his 
life  strong  enough  to  deny  while  she  was  tender  to 
love  and  pity,  he  might  have  been  as  entirely  given 
over  to  virtue  as  he  was  to  vice.  For  women  are 
the  making  or  the  marring  of  a  man.  When  we 
see  him  ruined,  by  whatever  vices,  we  may  know 
that  the  women  influencing  his  life  have  failed  in 
their  task.  St.  Lawrence  Desmond,  strong  enough 
to  love  the  right  herself  and  hate  the  wrong  as  she 
saw  it,  did  not  recognize  a  claim  on  her  own  self- 
reliance  to  hold  a  helping  hand  to  a  weaker  nature. 
She  was  serenely  satisfied  to  condemn  the  sinners 
with  whom  she  would  hold  no  communication ; 
their  possible  conversion  did  not  suggest  itself  to  her 
so  much  as  her  own  possible  defilement. 

Twelve  months  after  she  had  parted  with  him 


250  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

Fate  thrust  D'Arcy  Amyas  under  her  notice  again, 
and  she  resolutely  turned  away.  Laurie  was,  as 
already  stated,  singularly  free  of  relations ;  besides 
Colonel  and  Mrs.  Desmond,  her  step-brother  was 
really  the  only  one  who  had  any  claim  on  her  by 
blood  ties.  He  was  a  somewhat  delicate  youth,  a 
year  or  so  younger  than  herself,  and  it  was  suddenly 
discovered  that  the  state  of  his  lungs  demanded  a 
warmer  climate  than  England's.  All  the  influence 
in  the  family  was  called  upon,  with  the  result  that  a 
berth  was  found  for  him  in  Natal,  and  he  was  to 
start  at  once  for — Durban,  of  all  places  upon  earth  ! 
In  the  course  of  a  month  or  so  he  could  proceed  to 
his  final  destination,  which  was  some  way  north  of 
'Maritzburg,  but  it  being  deemed  unwise  for  him  to 
face  another  English  winter  he  was  to  go  out  at 
once  to  Durban,  and  on  account  of  his  health  his 
step-sister  was  advised  to  go  with  him,  and  see  him 
established  in  the  Colony.  It  was  no  part  of  the 
scheme  that  Laurie  should  take  up  her  residence 
permanently  in  South  Africa,  there  being  no  place 
for  her  with  Arnold  after  he  went  up  country  ;  but 
for  the  time  he  would  spend  in  Durban  she  was  to 
keep  house  for  him,  and,  it  was  hoped,  see  him  on 
the  highroad  to  recovery  before  he  went  inland  and 
she  returned  home. 

Laurie  accepted  the  responsibility  thrust  upon  her 
with  characteristic  steadfastness,  consenting  cheer- 
fully to  go  out  to  Africa  again,  and  only  using  all 
her  quiet  influence  that  the  passage  should  be  made 
in  a  mail-boat  to  Cape  Town,  and  on  by  rail  if 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  251 

Arnold  disliked  the  longer  and  more  tedious  journey 
which  these  boats  made  up  the  coast.  Arnold,  boy- 
like,  pleaded  for  Savernakes'  line  ;  he  said  that  they 
catered  especially  for  the  amusement  of  the  passen- 
gers, for  whom  it  was  like  a  pleasure  cruise,  and 
that  he  might  as  well  get  all  the  fun  out  of  it  that 
he  could,  seeing  he  was  going  to  be  banished  to  a 
half- civilized  land.  But  on  that  point  Laurie  was 
firm.  She  would  run  no  risk  on  Savernakes'  line  of 
an  encounter  with  Amyas,  who  might  have  changed 
his  boat  though  she  avoided  the  Princess,  and  she 
persisted  for  the  mail,  so  the  mail  it  was  which  took 
them  out  to  Cape  Town,  whither  they  proceeded  to 
Durban  by  rail. 

The  month  or  so's  life  in  Durban  seemed  like  a 
sunshiny  dream  to  both  brother  and  sister.  It  was 
not  yet  oppressively  hot,  and  there  was  still  suffi- 
cient gaiety  in  the  city  to  divert  them.  They  came 
out  armed  with  introductions,  and  soon  found 
themselves  involved  in  that  friendly  social  life  of 
the  Colony  that  seems  so  intoxicating  to  the  Eng- 
lish visitor,  fresh  from  the  more  laborious  pleasure- 
seeking  under  murky  skies  and  in  a  more  con- 
strained circle.  Every  one  seemed  on  terms  of 
easy  familiarity  in  their  set  in  Durban,  and  their 
sojourn  had  that  unstable  atmosphere  which  lent  it 
the  air  of  one  long  picnic. 

Some  of  the  sunshine  of  her  new  surroundings 
seemed  to  visibly  affect  Laurie ;  she  grew  to  look 
younger  and  less  grave,  and  her  smile  was  more 
ready  if  her  laugh  was  still  a  silent  one.  She  had 


252  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

almost  lost  her  first  dark  impressions  of  Africa  when 
a  letter  in  an  unknown  hand  one  day  revived  them. 
It  had  been  home  to  England,  and  positively  came 
out  again,  for  it  hailed  from  Bulawayo.  It  was 
written  in  a  rather  illiterate  hand,  though  it  was  not 
misspelt,  and  came,  Laurie  discovered,  from  Cherry's 
aunt,  the  hard-featured  woman  whom  she  had  driven 
out  of  the  room.  The  letter  was  brief  and  to  the 
point ;  it  was  only  written  to  tell  Miss  Desmond, 
who  had  seemed  to  feel  an  affection  for  her,  that 
Cherry  was  dead.  She  had  been  very  ill  when  her 
child  was  born,  and  a  merciful  fever  had  wiped  out 
both  frail  lives  about  twelve  months  later.  It  was 
a  stiff  letter,  badly  expressed,  but  not  intentionally 
unsympathetic,  though  there  was  a  note  of  practical 
resignation  about  it  that  suggested  that  the  writer 
felt  that  such  an  ending  to  the  tragedy  was  the  best 
that  could  have  been  hoped.  It  appeared  that 
Cherry  had  at  the  last  spoken  wistfully  of  her  old 
school  friend,  and  wished  she  could  have  seen  her 
again ;  but  Laurie's  name  was  the  only  one  to 
which  she  referred.  The  letter  finished,  however, 
with  a  strange  hint  at  danger  still  brooding  — 

"  And  her  father  is  as  set  on  bringing  him  to 
book  as  ever,  though  he  never  could  find  out  who 
it  was  all  this  time.  It's  to  be  hoped  that  if  he 
can  prove  enough  to  face  him  with  it  something 
will  keep  them  apart ;  for  I  think  he's  got  a  hint  at 
last,  and  he's  like  a  madman  about  it  all." 

Laurie  put  down  the  letter  with  a  shudder.  It 
struck  a  jarring  note  in  the  sunshine,  and  she 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  253 

thought  with  equal  shrinking  of  the  poor  little  life 
sacrificed  (what  a  death-bed,  set  round  with  harsh 
reproachful  faces,  and  perhaps  no  voice  to  comfort 
or  reassure !)  and  of  the  dark  cloud  following 
Cherry's  betrayer.  Why  would  not  Amyas  be 
warned?  She  could  do  nothing  more — she  did  not 
wish  to  ever  mix  herself  up  with  the  matter  again. 
She  put  his  very  name  out  of  her  thoughts  at  last, 
with  a  resolution  that  she  was  no  further  respon- 
sible. "  I  have  meddled  more  already  than  most 
people  would  have  felt  bound  to  do,"  she  thought 
disgustedly.  "  How  I  hate  men  whose  own  vice 
lies  at  the  root  of  such  entanglements  ! " — and  she 
forgot  him  until,  curiously  enough,  her  step- 
brother recalled  the  repugnant  personality  by  ask- 
ing her  on  what  boat  she  would  return  to  England 
after  he  had  left  her. 

"  You  had  better  go  in  the  Princess"  he  hap- 
pened to  say,  laughing,  for  he  knew  vaguely  her 
opinion  of  the  famous  Liner,  without  being  aware 
of  any  particular  cause  for  it,  or  her  personal  ac- 
quaintance with  Amyas.  Savernakes'  crack  boat 
had  by  this  time  a  certain  reputation  which  did  not 
accord  with  Laurie's  Puritan  principles.  Ship- 
owners may  or  may  not  know  of  these  things,  for 
sometimes  there  are  veiled  complaints  of  a  Master, 
whether  it  be  manners  or  morals  that  have  clashed 
with  the  passengers.  But  if  his  name  is  filed  for 
reference  or  not,  he  will  be  discussed  without 
varnish  in  the  ports  at  which  he  touches  and  is 
necessarily  known.  Even  Arnold  Desmond  had 


254  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

heard  of  D'Arcy  Amyas,  and  used  his  name  as  a 
matador  uses  the  red  scarf,  to  tease  his  sister. 

"  Don't  talk  nonsense  !  "  said  Laurie,  with  serene 
certainty  of  herself. 

She  would  have  said,  honestly  enough,  if  she  had 
felt  such  a  statement  necessary,  that  there  did  not 
exist  the  power  on  earth  that  would  make  her  take 
passage  in  the  Princess  after  her  memories  of  the 
boat,  travelling  independently  as  she  was  now.  But 
women  are  never  independent  agents,  because  their 
compassion,  or  their  maternal  instincts,  or  some 
other  gracious  trait  that  makes  them  belovedly 
weak,  acts  as  the  counterpoise,  and  destroys  the 
singleness  of  their  will.  Laurie  found  her  fate's 
agent  at  the  Royal  Hotel,  to  which  she  went,  when 
Arnold  started  up  country,  for  the  short  space  that 
must  elapse  before  she  had  arranged  her  passage. 
That  she  had  not  settled  her  own  affairs  before  her 
brother  left  was  due  to  her  whole  soul  being 
absorbed  in  him  to  the  exclusion  of  a  thought  of 
self.  She  made  her  own  plans  so  secondary  that 
she  did  not  waste  time  over  them -until  he  was 
fairly  gone.  Then  she  took  a  room  at  the  Royal, 
whither  the  friends  she  had  made  in  Durban  re- 
commended her,  and  began  to  think  of  her  own 
departure. 

She  was  a  little  distressed  at  her  independent 
position  in  her  secret  heart,  for  used  as  she  was  to 
being  her  own  mistress,  she  had  never  applied  her 
liberty  to  going  to  hotels.  Laurie  was  rather 
fastidiously  feminine,  and  objected  to  such  mascu- 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  255 

line  attention  as  threatened  her  from  her  isolated 
position  at  the  Royal.  For  this  reason  she  made 
quiet  advances  to  the  only  other  lady  whom  she 
saw  to  be  in  the  same  predicament  as  herself — a 
retiring  pale  woman,  with  colourless  hair  and  eyes, 
whose  face  was  so  stamped  with  ill-health  that  she 
appealed  doubly  to  Laurie  through  the  medium  of 
pity  as  well  as  her  own  necessity.  She  seemed 
thankful  also  for  some  one  to  speak  to,  and  ex- 
plained her  situation  to  Laurie  in  a  tone  of  helpless 
pathos. 

Her  name  was  Mildred  Hyde,  and  she  had  been 
a  governess  in  Natal  for  two  years,  but  the  climate 
had  not  suited  her,  and  the  final  breakdown  had 
been  caused  by  a  sharp  attack  of  fever.  She  was 
going  back  to  barren  prospects  in  England,  with 
ruined  health  and  a  future  dark  enough  to  depress 
any  woman ;  but  her  condition  was  further  aggra- 
vated by  an  absolute  terror  of  the  voyage.  She  had 
been  very  ill  coming  out,  and  in  her  present  state 
of  health  was  convinced  that  she  should  die,  without 
a  friend  on  board  to  be  near  her. 

It  was  natural  to  Laurie  Desmond  to  accept  the 
part  of  consoler  as  simply  as  if  it  were  a  trust  con- 
fided to  her.  The  mental  force  of  her  own  stead- 
fast nature  acted  upon  poor  ailing  Mildred  Hyde  far 
more  efficiently  than  a  physical  remedy.  It  was 
some  time  before  the  final  cause  of  her  depression 
was  made  clear  to  Laurie ;  but  going  to  her  room 
under  pretence  of  borrowing  some  small  feminine 
loan,  she  found  the  older  woman  crying  from  sheer 


256  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

fright,  and  drew  the  cause  of  her  terror  from 
her. 

"  But  you  must  not  let  yourself  give  in  to  it  like 
this,"  she  said  gently.  "  There  is  not  the  least  rea- 
son why  the  voyage  should  not  do  you  good  rather 
than  harm,  if  you  have  a  smooth  passage,  as  they 
generally  do  at  this  time  of  year.  1  am  going  home 
soon  also,  and  I  am  not  anticipating  being  ill  in  the 
least." 

"  You  are  going  home  !  "  A  flash  of  utter  relief 
came  into  Miss  Hyde's  dull  eyes.  "  I  feared  you 
had  just  come  out.  Oh,  if  you  are  on  the  same 
boat  I  am  comforted.  You  do  not  know  what  a 
relief  it  is  to  me  to  think  that  you  will  also  be  on 
board  the  Princess  !  " 

A  sudden  change  came  over  the  strong,  gentle 
young  face  at  which  she  looked.  Laurie  did  not 
speak,  she  had  not  the  heart  to  destroy  the  hope  in 
the  suffering  eyes  by  absolute  words,  but  Mildred 
Hyde  read  her  denial  with  the  quickness  of  her 
anxiety. 

"  You  are  not  coming  !  You  do  not  sail  in  that 
ship  !  Then  there  is  no  hope  for  me." 

"  Could  you  not  put  off  your  return  for  a  week  ?  " 
said  Laurie  patiently.  "  There  are  reasons  why  I 
cannot  sail  in  the  Princess,  but  I  should  be  as  glad 
as  you  to  know  that  we  were  to  be  together,  if  you 
could  alter  your  passage." 

Miss  Hyde's  face  flushed  and  paled  distressfully. 
"  I  cannot  for  many  reasons,"  she  faltered.  "  I 
cannot  afford  to  stay  on  here  for  one  thing,  and  for 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  257 

another  I  should  offend  the  relation  who  is  paying 
my  passage  if  I  did  not  go  in  the  boat  he  has 
chosen.  He  is  a  harsh  man,  and  peculiar,  but  he  is 
wealthy,  and  my  only  hope  of  help  is  with  him." 

Laurie  stood  quietly  by  the  window,  looking  out 
over  the  deserted  garden  and  its  sub-tropical  trees 
and  winding  paths.  Her  face  was  set,  and  her  re- 
solved tone  carried  the  conviction  of  despair  to  her 
hearer's  heart. 

"  Then  I  am  very  sorry,  but  I  am  afraid  we  are 
not  to  be  fellow-passengers,"  she  said. 

"  Of  course  I  cannot  expect  you  to  alter  your 
own  plans  to  mine,"  said  Mildred  Hyde  humbly. 

She  accepted  the  untowardness  of  Fate  with  the 
resignation  of  one  well  used  to  such  disappoint- 
ments. But  the  monotonous  tone  haunted  Laurie's 
dreams  all  night.  The  girl  fought  a  hard  battle 
with  herself  before  the  morning,  for  a  decision  was 
necessary  one  way  or  another  at  once — the  Princess 
sailed  at  four  o'clock  next  day.  After  all,  who  was 
she,  Laurie  Desmond,  to  set  her  private  prejudices 
against  such  urgent  need  of  help  and  protection  as 
was  thrown  in  her  way  in  the  person  of  this  ailing 
woman  ?  Laurie  was  as  tender  to  the  afflicted  whom 
she  considered  innocent,  as  she  was  hard  to  the  sin- 
ner. A  little  disagreeableness  for  herself  there 
might  be,  but  it  was  a  selfish  reason  to  stand  in  the 
way  of  her  helping  a  fellow-creature.  If  St.  Law- 
rence Desmond  was  stringent  for  others,  she  was 
not  indulgent  to  herself. 

"  You  can  do  this  thing,"  she  said,  facing  her  own 


258  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

reluctance  in  the  still  grey  of  the  early  morning  that 
found  her  sleepless,  sitting  up  in  bed  with  wide 
young  eyes  watching  for  the  day.  "  It  is  not  pleas- 
ant— no  doubt  that  type  of  man  will  make  it  ob- 
jectionable to  any  extent  in  his  power,  until  he 
learns  that  it  is  no  use.  But  you  are  surely  strong 
enough  to  hold  yourself  free  from  the  least  contam- 
ination. Who  is  D'Arcy  Amyas,  or  any  other  man 
with  loose  morals,  that  you  should  fear  him  ?  Take 
this  work  that  you  find  to  your  hand,  and  help 
another  woman  as  you  would  like  to  be  helped 
yourself ! " 

She  went  to  Mildred  Hyde's  room  with  the  sun- 
rise, and  it  seemed  to  the  sick  woman  that  all  the 
sunshine  in  the  world  came  with  her  and  smiled  out 
of  her  clear  eyes. 

"  I  have  changed  my  mind,"  she  said.  "  I  am 
sailing  in  the  Princess — with  you.  We  will  stand 
by  each  other." 

The  time  before  the  boat  started  was  so  merci- 
fully full  that  she  had  no  leisure  in  which  to  regret 
even  if  she  would  have  allowed  herself  to  do  so. 
She  had  to  book  her  passage,  and  to  get  her  trunks 
ready,  and  then  to  get  Miss  Hyde  on  board  and 
safely  established.  They  shared  a  cabin,  and,  in 
attending  to  her,  Laurie  almost  forgot  her  own  re- 
pugnance to  encounter  the  man  in  whose  hands 
their  lives  were  for  the  next  three  weeks. 

As  on  that  former  voyage  when  she  had  first  met 
him,  she  did  not  see  Amyas  at  all  until  they  were 
out  of  sight  of  land.  The  boat  had  already  left 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  259 

Durban  an  hour  before  she  was  free,  for  she  had 
thought  it  better  to  persuade  the  invalid  to  go 
straight  to  bed,  and  had  busied  herself  with  arranging 
their  mutual  belongings  and  attending  to  her  com- 
fort while  the  majority  of  the  passengers  were  still 
on  deck,  waving  to  friends  on  the  retreating  tug, 
and  taking  part  in  that  kind  of  funeral  festivity 
peculiar  to  a  boat's  departure.  After  a  while  she 
heard  feet  coming  down  the  alleyways — cabin  doors 
banged,  and  the  sound  of  laughing  and  talking. 
People  were  coming  down  to  open  their  trunks  be- 
fore the  bugle  warned  them  to  dress  for  dinner. 
Laurie  was  a  good  sailor,  but  the  cabin  was  close, 
and  she  was  afraid  for  the  first  time  that  she  might 
be  ill  and  consequently  unable  to  look  after  her 
companion.  Miss  Hyde  had  dropped  peacefully 
asleep,  and  the  decks  would  be  empty,  so  Laurie 
decided  to  go  up  for  a  breath  of  air  and  return  to 
her  charge  later  on.  She  did  not  intend  to  appear 
at  dinner,  but  hoped  by  asking  the  stewardess  to 
bring  it  to  their  cabin  to  induce  Mildred  to  follow 
her  example  and  eat  some  also. 

With  light  fleet  feet  she  passed  through  the 
saloon  and  up  the  main  companion.  The  sunset 
was  still  flooding  the  deck,  and  some  reflection  of 
its  light  stole  down  into  the  great  dining-room  and 
was  not  dispersed  by  the  few  lights  at  present 
turned  on.  It  gave  a  hushed  twilight  feeling  to  the 
ship,  and  the  sense  of  mystery  wrapped  Laurie 
round  as  she  stepped  out  of  the  deckhouse  into 
the  full  glow.  Sea  and  sky  and  ship  had  been  all 


260  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

transfigured,  but  the  glory  was  fading  rapidly ; 
overhead  the  heavens  were  changing  to  a  cold  clear 
blue,  and  the  sea  was  polished  indigo,  solid  to  the 
eye,  each  ridge  of  moving  water  faintly  burnished 
with  the  pink  out  of  the  west.  Through  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth  the  Princess  seemed  rush- 
ing on  into  eternity. 

Laurie  walked  for'ard  mechanically,  and  leaned 
on  the  rail  which  bounded  the  promenade  deck. 
She  forgot  that  she  was  so  near  the  object  of  her 
avoidance,  though  she  stood  close  to  his  own  room. 
The  Captain's  cabin  on  the  Princess  was  not  on  the 
boat  deck ;  it  stood  under  the  bridge,  flanked  on 
either  side  by  the  deck  cabins  of  the  more  im- 
portant passengers ;  but  Laurie  little  heeded  that 
closed  door  behind  which  might  lurk  her  tragic 
fate.  She  was  absorbed  in  the  sky  and  the  sea,  and 
the  little  soft  wind  which  blew  from  the  sunset  and 
lifted  her  hair  softly  from  her  serious  face. 

She  was  roused  by  one  of  the  doors  of  the  pas- 
sengers' cabins  banging,  and  a  step  that  sounded  on 
the  deck  behind  her.  It  paused,  hesitated,  and  then 
approached,  and  she  turned  to  see  a  portly  figure 
in  clerical  dress,  a  fine  grey  head,  and  shrewd  eyes 
with  a  twinkle  in  them.  Laurie  liked  this  gentle- 
man's appearance,  and  her  eyes  welcomed  him ;  she 
liked  too  the  cordial  frank  tone  in  which  he  spoke. 

"  A  beautiful  evening  for  our  start." 

"  Yes,  I  was  just  thinking  so,"  said  the  girl,  still 
leaning  a  little  against  the  rail,  on  which  he  had 
also  steadied  his  elbow  as  he  stood  at  her  side. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  261 

"  I  hope  you  are  not  feeling  unwell  already  ?  "  he 
said  quizzically,  with  a  glance  at  her  fresh,  uncon- 
cerned face. 

"  Oh,  no  ;  but  I  think  it  is  wiser  to  be  in  the  open 
air  at  first,  and  I  had  not  been  up  on  deck  since  we 
joined  the  boat.  I  have  a  lady  with  me  who  is  an 
invalid,"  she  explained.  "  I  got  her  to  bed  as  soon 
as  possible,  and  have  been  unpacking  since." 

"  I  hope  her  illness  will  not  prevent  your  appear- 
ing at  dinner." 

For  the  first  time  Laurie  almost  regretted  that  it 
would.  The  kindly  tone  attracted  her,  and  she  felt 
that  with  the  moral  support  of  this  new  friend  she 
could  face  even  that  dreaded  figure  at  the  head  of 
the  Captain's  table. 

"  I  am  afraid  I  shall  not  be  there  to-night,"  she 
said,  shaking  her  head.  "  I  shall  have  my  dinner 
in  my  cabin  with  Miss  Hyde." 

"  Oh,  well,  you  must  come  up  on  deck  afterwards 
then.  Your  friend  will  have  gone  to  sleep,  and  you 
mustn't  mope  indoors  all  the  evening — we  can't 
have  it ! " 

"  I  hope,"  said  Laurie  impulsively,  "  that  when 
we  do  appear  we  shall  sit  at  your  table !  " 

"  I  shall  make  a  point  of  it.  I  am  an  old  friend 
of  the  Chief  Officer,  Mr.  Lambert,  and  when  I 
travel  on  this  boat  I  always  sit  on  his  right.  I  shall 
keep  the  two  places  next  me  for  you  and  your 
friend  when  we  settle  our  seats  to-night,  if  I  may  ?  " 

"  Please  do." 

"  My  name,"  he  said,  producing  a  pocketbook 


262  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

and  opening  it  with  a  certain  fastidious  deliberation, 
"  is  Melville.  I  am  the  vicar  of  St.  Jervoise,  in 
Wiltshire.  Now,  if  you  will  tell  me  yours  I  shall 
not  forget  it." 

"  I  am  St.  Lawrence  Desmond,  and  my  friend  is 
Mildred  Hyde." 

"  Both  Miss's  ? "  he  asked  with  comically-lifted 
brows. 

"  Yes,  both,"  said  Laurie,  laughing. 

"I  am  relieved "  began  Mr.  Melville,  and 

then  turned  quickly  and  looked  over  his  shoulder. 
"  Good-evening,  Captain,"  he  said,  in  the  same  pleas- 
ant voice  with  which  he  spoke  to  Laurie. 

The  door  of  Amyas'  cabin  had  been  flung  back, 
the  curtain  lifted,  and  he  himself  stepped  out  smartly 
on  the  deck.  Laurie's  limbs  gave  a  traitorous  shud- 
der, and  she  put  her  hand  on  the  rail  again  to  steady 
them.  In  spite  of  her  will  to  rally  her  forces,  her 
nerves  acknowledged  Amyas'  presence  as  she  would 
fain  have  forbidden  their  doing.  She  forced  herself 
to  turn  and  face  him  calmly,  her  lovely  grey  eyes — 
the  only  real  beauty  of  her  face — resting  a  moment 
on  his  big  person  in  its  blue  cloth.  The  Company's 
badge  glimmered  on  his  cap,  and  the  Company's 
gold  lace  barred  his  sleeve  above  the  snowy  wrist- 
band ;  otherwise  he  was  a  Naval  man  for  smartness 
and  quiet  swagger. 

He  had  acknowledged  the  clergyman's  greeting 
with  a  swift  salute ;  it  was  his  business  to  be  "  hail 
fellow  "  with  every  passenger  on  board,  nevertheless 
it  was  a  known  fact  that  Captain  Amyas  hated  the 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  263 

Church  of  England  as  he  did  no  other  existing 
body,  and  that,  cordial  as  he  might  appear,  he 
would  rather  welcome  any  other  profession  on  his 
boat  than  the  clergy.  A  "  parson  "  was  always  a 
whited  sepulchre  in  his  eyes,  and  he  condemned 
them  as  hypocrites  worse  than  his  frankly  heathen 
self.  He  was  not  going  to  stop  now  to  speak  to 
Mr.  Melville,  but  habit  made  him  turn  his  eyes  on 
the  lady  to  discover  who  it  was.  He  checked  in 
his  swing  down  the  deck,  looked  again  out  of  nar- 
rowing eyes  as  if  he  could  not  believe  it,  and 
turned  back. 

"  Miss  Desmond,"  he  said,  lifting  his  cap  from  the 
sunny  head  that  was  as  yet  undimmed  by  any  silver 
hair.  "  I  did  not  know  you  were  on  board." 

He  held  out  his  hand  and  she  offered  her  own  in 
unsmiling  salutation.  With  Mr.  Melville  looking  on 
it  was  impossible  to  refuse.  But  she  did  not  speak. 

"  Your  name  is  not  on  the  passenger  list,"  he  said. 

"  I  came  on  board  at  the  last  moment — I  mean  I 
booked  in  this  boat  at  the  last  moment." 

"  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Desmond  are  not  with  you 
this  time  ?  " 

"  No.  I  am  with  a  friend — a  lady  who  is  an  in- 
valid. It  was  on  her  account  that  I  hurried  off  to- 
day. Otherwise  I  was  going  to  wait  for  the  next 
boat."  She  spoke  clearly,  weighing  the  words. 
There  should  be  no  mistake  between  them.  Re- 
membering that  last  occasion  when  he  had  con- 
trived to  get  her  into  his  cabin,  she  was  determined 
that  he  should  realize  her  reluctance  to  sail  in  his  ship. 


264  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  I  see,"  he  said,  and  his  lips  smiled  a  little. 
"  We  are  delighted  to  have  you  as  a  passenger, 
however,  under  any  conditions." 

"  I  am  trying  to  persuade  Miss  Desmond  to  come 
down  to  dinner,"  said  Mr.  Melville, "  but  she  is  bent 
on  devoting  herself  to  her  friend." 

"  The  stewardess  will  look  after  her,"  said  Amyas 
with  the  careless  authority  of  a  Liner  despot.  "  Or 
I  will  send  the  doctor  if  you  are  anxious,  Miss  Des- 
mond. But  you  must  not  miss  your  dinner." 

"  Thank  you  ;  I  prefer  having  it  with  Miss  Hyde 
in  the  cabin." 

"  Come,  don't  be  wilful !  In  Mrs.  Desmond's  ab- 
sence we  feel  bound  to  look  after  you.  I  shall  keep  an 
empty  seat  for  you,  and  you  will  change  your  mind." 

"  Too  late,  Captain  !  "  said  Mr.  Melville  with  a 
jolly  laugh.  "  Miss  Desmond  sits  by  me.  I  have 
secured  the  privilege  before  you." 

For  a  moment  Amyas'  haughty  blue  eyes  looked 
over  this  insignificant  unit  in  his  charge,  as  if  he 
found  it  almost  impossible  to  understand  a  passen- 
ger disputing  a  claim  of  his.  Mr.  Melville's  cloth 
made  it  the  more  intolerable,  and  Laurie's  half-un- 
conscious movement  towards  him  aggravated  mat- 
ters. He  did  not  answer  in  words,  but  the  dinner- 
bugle  sounding  he  remarked  that  they  would  be 
late,  and  raising  his  cap  again  disappeared  into  the 
deckhouse. 

"  Our  friend  was  not  pleased  !  "  said  the  clergy- 
man, his  eyes  twinkling.  "  He  is  accustomed  to  be 
irresistible  !  " 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  265 

"  I  am  not  aware  of  having  encouraged  the 
notion,"  said  Laurie  calmly,  turning  away  from  the 
saloon  and  towards  the  alleyway.  Mr.  Melville 
laughed  silently  to  himself  all  the  way  to  his 
table. 

Miss  Desmond  congratulated  herself  during  the 
next  few  days  upon  her  snub  having  taken  effect 
and  her  hint  been  accepted.  She  saw  but  little  of 
Amyas,  as,  even  when  she  got  Mildred  Hyde  to 
come  to  meals,  they  sat  at  the  Chief  Officer's  table. 
But  she  was  mistaken  in  thinking  that  her  adversary 
had  capitulated.  Amyas  was  brooding  more  sul- 
lenly over  his  rebuff  than  he  ever  remembered  doing 
before.  It  was  a  new  experience  for  him,  and  other 
details  stimulated  his  resistance.  His  distorted 
imagination  saw  the  old  grudge  revived  in  Mr.  Mel- 
ville's kindly  interest  in  Laurie,  for  the  clergyman 
was  a  widower,  and  in  spite  of  his  grey  hairs 
Amyas  never  hesitated  to  call  him  a  rival.  Laurie 
would  have  been  disgusted,  and  Mr.  Melville  him- 
self amazed,  if  they  could  have  known  the  light  in 
which  their  intercourse  was  regarded.  But  as  it 
happened  they  both  ignored  the  Captain  for  differ- 
ent reasons,  and  his  opinion  did  not  occur  to  them 
to  disturb  their  minds. 

In  the  midst  of  all  his  administrative  talents,  ex- 
ercised in  the  guiding  and  governing  of  his  ship, 
D'Arcy  Amyas  was  conscious  of  the  one  woman 
on  board  to  whom  he  was  actively  repugnant ; 
further,  he  was  all  the  more  bent  on  overcoming  the 
repugnance.  Laurie's  personality  fretted  him ;  he 


266  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

could  forget  her  away  from  him,  out  of  his  reach, 
but  when  Fate  tossed  him  such  a  chance  as  having 
her  on  his  boat,  unprotected  even  by  her  own  peo- 
ple, he  felt  he  must  grasp  it.  It  was  an  instinct 
beyond  his  power  to  control.  He  wanted  this — so 
badly  that  he  felt  he  must  have  it !  Long  since  he 
had  been  rivalled  by  a  parson  too,  and  badly  beaten 
— so  badly  that  the  old  scar  ached  now  at  the  sight 
of  the  clerical  uniform.  He  would  not  be  beaten 
again  ;  but  he  went  to  work  with  all  the  caution  and 
craft  of  many  years'  experience  that  lay  between 
that  day  and  this. 

Laurie  came  on  deck  one  day  to  find  her  own 
chair,  which  was  next  to  Miss  Hyde's,  occupied  by 
a  conspicuous  figure.  She  had  been  down  to  the 
library  to  fetch  a  book,  and  had  left  Mildred  dozing. 
She  was  wide  awake  now,  a  little  flush  of  gratifica- 
tion on  her  thin  cheeks,  evidently  interested  and 
absorbed  in  the  big  bearded  man  who  was  talking 
to  her.  The  Captain's  attention  was  an  awe-inspir- 
ing thing  to  Mildred  Hyde,  and  she  raised  herself 
a  little  among  the  shawls  and  cushions  of  her  long 
deck-chair  to  listen  to  him.  Laurie  stopped  short, 
petrified,  but  just  then  Amyas  rose,  lifted  his  cap, 
and  left  her  chair  free  again. 

"  The  Captain  has  been  talking  to  me,"  said  Mil- 
dred breathlessly,  as  Laurie  took  the  empty  seat 
quietly. 

"  So  I  saw." 

"  He  said  if  I  would  make  an  effort  to  come  to 
the  concert  to-night,  he  would  have  the  canvas 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  267 

rigged  up  so  that  there  should  be  no  draught. 
He  is  kind  !  " 

"  Is  he  ?  "  said  Laurie  dryly. 

"  Don't  you — admire  him  ?  "  said  Mildred  hesi- 
tatingly. Her  tone  betrayed  that  she  had  been 
going  to  say  "  like." 

"  Not  at  all !  "  was  Laurie's  answer,  softened  for 
Mildred  personally,  however,  by  the  smile  in  her 
eyes.  "  Come,  let  us  go  on  reading  and  forget  Cap- 
tain Amyas.  He  does  not  interest  me  a  fraction  so 
much  as  '  Sir  Charles  Danvers.'  " 

But  from  that  day  Laurie  found  one  of  her  bul- 
warks down.  Amyas  joined  the  "  invalid  group  " 
when  and  where  he  chose,  and  Mildred's  welcome 
excused  any  silence  on  her  friend's  part.  He  had 
abandoned  his  usual  plan  of  sitting  only  at  his  own 
table  on  this  voyage  too,  and  exchanged  for  a  few 
nights  with  each  Officer  in  turn — "  Played  general 
post !  "  as  Mr.  Melville  put  it,  laughing.  When  the 
turn  came  for  any  table  that  he  thought  dull,  he 
generally  managed  to  be  forced  to  attend  to  his  ship, 
and  did  not  appear ;  but  there  was  never  a  question 
about  his  presence  in  Mr.  Lambert's  place.  He 
was  his  most  charming  self  there,  a  perfect  host, 
a  genial  fellow,  an  excellent  talker,  trained  by 
years  of  invaluable  service.  Laurie  listened  and 
wondered.  Once  her  eyes,  searching  his  face  for 
some  remembrance  to  an  old  faded  photograph 
hanging  on  a  cottage  wall  in  far-away  Trawles,  en- 
countered his  own  before  she  could  avoid  it.  They 
looked  at  each  other — the  narrow  blue  eyes,  and 


268  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

the  wide,  repellent  grey.  That  night  he  stopped  her 
as  she  was  gathering  Mildred's  shawls  together  and 
about  to  follow  her  charge,  who  had  already  left  the 
deck. 

"  Don't  go,  Miss  Desmond,"  he  pleaded,  standing 
in  her  path  so  that  she  needs  must  wait.  "  Sit 
down  for  a  minute  and  speak  to  me.  You  never 
give  me  a  chance  to  talk  to  you !  " 

"  Miss  Hyde  is  waiting  for  me — excuse  me,  Cap- 
tain Amyas." 

"  I  have  just  said  good-night  to  Miss  Hyde,  and 
she  knows  I  am  keepin'  you.  It  is  not  good  for 
you  to  be  always  in  that  stuffy  cabin.  Won't  you 
give  me  a  few  minutes  ?  " 

She  looked  at  him,  with  a  feeling  that  brutal 
honesty  was  her  only  course. 

"  Frankly — I  would  rather  not ! " 

"  You  have  not  forgiven  me  for  kissin'  your 
hand  ?  " 

It  had  been  worse  than  that  in  her  estimation — 
he  should  not  have  referred  to  it.  Now  her  mo- 
mentary hesitation  was  gone — now  she  felt  she 
almost  wanted  to  hurt  him. 

"  You  need  not  remind  me,"  she  said  contemptu- 
ously. "  It  was  an  impertinence  better  forgotten." 

"  I  have  not  forgotten  ! "  His  voice  grew  hoarser 
and  lower.  She  was  surprised  by  a  horrible  sensa- 
tion of  fear.  This  man  was  not  a  gentleman,  not  to 
be  restrained  by  the  code  of  a  gentleman.  If  only 
some  one  would  come  !  Where  was  Mr.  Melville  ? 
The  long  deck  was  practically  deserted  at  this  end, 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  269 

and  she  felt  momentarily  paralyzed  and  unable  to 
push  past  him  as  she  wished. 

"  Miss  Desmond,  why  are  you  so  hard  on  me  ?  " 
he  said  unexpectedly.  "  Did  my  old  friend  Nell 
Culverton  give  me  a  bad  name  ?  " 

"  Indeed  she  did  not ! "  retorted  Laurie.  "  It 
was  left  to  you  yourself  to  do  that.  I  was  disposed 
to  like  you  until " 

Her  voice  choked  in  the  remembrance  of  Cherry. 
How  dared  he  ignore  that  shameful,  degrading 
story  !  How  dared  he  insult  her,  a  helpless  girl,  de- 
fenceless on  his  ship,  by  that  altered  voice  and 
those  asking  eyes  ! 

"  You  pray  sometimes,  don't  you  ? "  he  said 
rapidly,  bending  towards  her.  "  I  remember  one 
sentence  that  seems  part  of  a  prayer — '  Be  merciful 
to  me, a  sinner'  !  " 

The  appeal  was  so  unlocked  for  that  it  struck  her 
dumb.  A  little  of  her  youth  and  hardness  was 
wearing  off  naturally  with  the  course  of  time,  and 
she  softened  involuntarily  to  the  humbler  suggestion 
of  his  words.  The  eyes  that  she  raised  were  by  no 
means  warm  with  passion,  tender,  responsive  to  his 
own  as  he  had  tried  to  picture  them,  but  they  were 
no  longer  hostile. 

"  If  I  have  been  hard,"  she  said  slowly,  holding 
out  her  hand,  "  I  am  sorry.  But  I  am  only  human, 
not  divine.  Forgive  my  saying  that  I  think  you 
ask  divine  patience  and  consideration.  Good-night, 
Captain  Amyas." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

"  The  burden  of  sad  sayings.     In  that  day 

Thou  shall  tell  all  thy  days  and  hours,  and  tell 
Thy  times  and  ways  and  words  of  love,  and  say 
How  one  was  dear  and  one  desirable, 
And  sweet  was  life  to  hear  and  sweet  to  smell, 
But  now  with  lights  reverse  the  old  hours  retire 
And  the  last  hour  is  shod  with  fire  from  hell. 
This  is  the  end  of  every  man's  desire." 

A.  C.  SWINBURNE 

ON  a  dark  rainy  evening  in  November  the  Sea- 
gull left  her  berth  in  the  docks  at  Hull,  and  steamed 
slowly  out  of  harbour  to  the  open  seas.  She  was 
a  big,  heavy  boat,  low  powered,  but  with  immense 
carrying  capacity.  Her  owners  were  one  of  the 
large  northeast  trading  firms,  and  sent  her  to  most 
of  the  big  ports  in  the  world,  but  oftenest  to  Mel- 
bourne and  Sydney.  On  this  occasion,  however, 
her  cargo  was  not  a  rich  one,  though  heavy ;  she 
was  loaded  down  with  ironwork  for  consignment  at 
Brisbane,  and  her  free-board  only  just  satisfied  the 
Board  of  Trade  regulations.  Heavy,  sullen,  and 
slow,  she  ploughed  her  way  out  into  the  dark,  dirty 
night,  stared  after  by  the  crews  of  other  boats  as  if 
her  vanishing  lights  had  something  sinister  about 
them. 

Benson,  her  skipper,  was  short  of  hands,  and 
though  the  Seagull  was  a  well-found  ship,  the  extra 
labour  made  the  men  grumble  under  breath.  But 
270 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  271 

scarred,  blaspheming  devils  though  most  of  them 
were,  they  dared  not  speak  out  to  the  Master,  for 
they  feared  him  as  they  feared  crazed  men.  He 
went  about  his  work  in  a  horrible  silence,  grim  and 
ready,  and  he  seemed  to  require  neither  rest  nor 
sleep,  for  at  all  hours  of  the  watch  his  wild  face 
would  thrust  itself  suddenly  upon  their  conscious- 
ness, without  their  having  been  warned  of  his  ap- 
proach. With  the  superstition  of  their  class  they 
called  his  brooding  uncanny,  and  whispered  among 
themselves  that  the  Old  Man  was  touched,  and  best 
let  alone.  Even  the  heavy  tramp  steamer  seemed 
to  feel  the  oppression  of  a  coming  fate  as  she 
groaned  and  laboured  over  the  heavy  seas,  or  as  if 
the  dark  cloud  resting  on  Benson  had  affected  her 
also. 

And  coming  to  meet  her,  half  across  the  world, 
was  the  great  racing  Liner,  the  Princess,  carrying 
her  fifteen  hundred  passengers  through  the  tropics, 
northwards,  with  the  calm  steady  sweep  of  her  re- 
sistless screws,  which  thrust  her  forward  into  the 
gaping  mouth  of  her  destiny.  A  fair  thing,  this 
I2,ooo-ton  Liner,  hurling  herself  from  one  hemis- 
phere to  another,  through  incalculable  fathoms  of 
blue  water  which  might  at  any  time  overwhelm 
her! 

Destiny  is  so  naturally  resented  of  mankind  that 
it  is  almost  always  described  as  "  a  strange  coinci- 
dence,"— or  if  it  is  possible  to  make  Providence  re- 
sponsible, those  who  are  conscience-stricken  call  it 
retribution.  Benson,  taking  the  sluggish  Seagull 


272  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

out  to  the  Bay,  brooded  on  the  chance  of  meeting 
his  enemy  in  some  port  at  last,  and  shooting  him 
as  he  would  have  done  a  mad  dog.  D'Arcy  Amyas 
hardly  credited  the  warning  that  the  man  he  had 
driven  mad  with  the  wrong  done  him  had  learned 
his  name.  If  he  allowed  the  thought  of  a  meeting 
to  trouble  him  at  all,  it  was  as  of  a  disagreeable  thing 
that  might  have  to  be  faced,  but  was  not  worth  con- 
sidering beforehand.  He  would  avoid  an  encounter 
if  he  could — if  it  must  be,  he  looked  for  it  under 
circumstances  where  public  opinion  would  not  go 
hard  against  him.  Neither  man  foresaw  that  the 
meeting  might  come  on  the  high  seas  where  they 
had  passed  their  lives  ;  and  on  board  the  Ptincess 
was  no  shadow  of  fear,  but  the  sound  of  light 
laughter  and  women's  voices  about  her  decks,  and 
all  the  epitome  of  life  that  goes  on  in  the  three  or 
four  weeks'  enforced  communication  of  an  ocean 
voyage.  Amyas  counted  his  journeys  by  quarrels — 
there  were  five  amongst  his  lady  passengers  that 
trip,  three  of  which  he  settled  himself — and  by  con- 
fidences, more  than  by  wind  and  weather.  When 
his  most  important  passenger  had  taken  him  apart, 
and  poured  out  a  few  secrets  which  might  be  worth 
thousands  to  know,  under  stress  of  the  momentary 
intimacy,  he  considered  the  days  as  not  ill-spent ; 
sometimes,  on  looking  back,  he  marvelled  at  the 
great  personages  who  had  eased  their  minds  by  a 
little  cosy  chat  with  the  Captain.  They  probably 
forgot,  or  did  not  realize,  the  extent  of  their  trust, 
but  he  found  it  useful  afterwards  in  dealing  with 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  273 

them  again,  though  he  never  reminded  them  of  his 
knowledge  by  a  single  indiscreet  word.  He  had 
mixed  with  so  many  distinguished  and  really  great 
people,  titled  and  untitled,  that  he  had  unconsciously 
caught  the  breeding  of  the  best  in  his  outward  man- 
ner, and  was  accounted  a  very  pleasant  man.  It 
was  seldom  that  any  one  saw  the  darker  side  of 
him  as  Laurie  Desmond  had  done,  to  the  point  of 
denying  him  the  right  to  the  elastic  title  "  gentle- 
man." It  was  seldom  also  that  he  made  mistakes 
as  he  had  done  in  her  case,  though  his  life  had  been 
of  necessity  not  one  in  which  to  study  individual 
character,  but  had  made  him  superficially  clever  in 
managing  men  and  women.  It  had  been  pano- 
ramic, like  all  Merchantmen's ;  the  very  Officers 
under  him  were  hardly  stationary  figures,  changing 
as  they  frequently  did  before  he  knew  anything  of 
them  except  their  professional  capabilities.  Here 
to-day,  gone  to-morrow ;  such  had  always  been  the 
effect  of  the  people  with  whom  he  came  in  contact. 
He  had  learned  to  judge  quickly,  and  because  he 
was  generally  attracted  by  the  same  traits  and  pecul- 
iarities he  had  rarely  found  himself  at  fault. 

Laurie  did  not  know  how  great  an  influence  her 
consistent  attitude  had  gained  her  with  D'Arcy. 
Since  his  appeal  to  her  mercy  she  had  kept  an 
armed  peace  with  him,  and  if  he  joined  her  and 
Miss  Hyde  she  did  not  immediately  go  away  ;  but 
he  felt  through  it  all  that  he  never  gained  a  step  in 
her  favour,  and  he  chafed  against  the  knowledge. 
She  did  not  perhaps  hate  him  any  more,  but  she  re- 


274  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

garded  him  with  a  bitter  pity  that  robbed  itself  of 
all  personal  interest.  He  was  conscious,  while  he 
talked  to  Mildred,  of  Laurie's  serious  eyes  resting 
on  him,  until  their  sadness  affected  his  own  plastic 
nature,  and  he  was  sad  too,  though  for  what  he 
hardly  knew.  Other  women  had  not  seemed  to 
wish  him  different,  and  his  nature  was  too  set  in  its 
groove  by  this  time  for  sudden  conversion  ;  he  only 
wondered  blindly  why  she  should  look  on  life  from 
such  a  different  standpoint,  as  he  was  beginning  to 
realize  that  she  did,  and  he  knew  by  instinct  that 
she  was  grieving  over  something  he  was  not,  until 
her  regret  overshadowed  him  visibly  as  he  sat  by 
Mildred  Hyde's  wicker  lounge,  his  elbows  resting 
on  his  knees,  his  tanned  face  almost  stern  under 
the  peak  of  his  tilted  cap.  On  one  such  occasion 
Laurie's  presence  absolutely  lost  him  his  self-posses- 
sion, and  woke  him  to  the  realization  of  his  own  feel- 
ing for  her,  in  the  midst  of  telling  Mildred  a  rough 
prank  of  his  apprentice  days. 

" and  the  second  Mate  was  asleep  on  his 

watch,  so  I  and  another  boy  got  some  tackle  and 
made  a  tangle  round  him.  Just  then  the  Old  Man 
came  by,  and  we  had  only  time  to  cut  and  run,  for 
he  yelled  out  an  order  and  the  Mate  jumped  up  to 
see  to  it,  and  found  he  was  tied  to  his  post !  He 
was  swearin'  like  a  madman,  and  if  he  could  have 
caught  us " 

He  raised  his  head  to  laugh,  and  the  sentence 
broke  off  short.  The  blood  came  up  to  his  face, 
and  his  eyes  were  fixed  on  Laurie's,  for  something 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  275 

in  his  representation  of  himself  as  a  boy,  playing 
boyish  tricks,  but  not  yet  a  soul-grimed  man,  had 
made  her  smile  tenderly.  He  made  no  attempt  to 
finish  the  yarn ;  with  a  muttered  word  he  got  up 
and  walked  off  down  the  deck,  raising  his  cap 
mechanically. 

He  turned  into  his  cabin,  feeling  as  if  he  were 
drunk,  and  sat  down  to  think.  What  was  this 
overmastering  excitement  that  threatened  to  choke 
him  because  a  pair  of  grey  eyes  softened  for  him 
once  ?  Ah  !  but  that  was  just  it — for  once  !  He 
had  learned  by  constant  rebuffs  to  respect  Laurie 
Desmond,  and  that  had  made  a  solid  basis  for  his 
merely  sensual  emotions,  and  caused  his  fancy  to 
live  and  grow  instead  of  dying  out,  scant  nourish- 
ment though  it  got.  She  had  never  looked  at  him 
with  anything  but  dislike  and  disapproval  before, 
and  the  mere  idea  of  winning  her  favour  at  last 
made  him  desperately  anxious  not  to  lose  the  ad- 
vance he  had  made.  She  should  care  for  him — 
even  as  he  cared  for  her — never  mind  what  it  cost. 
Supposing — supposing  that  he  was  false  to  his 
theories,  false  to  his  self-interest,  and  married ! 
Nothing  less  would  gain  him  Laurie,  he  knew, 
though  there  was  just  enough  of  the  wild  beast  in 
him,  when  not  checked  by  caution,  to  make  him 
resort  to  any  pressure  had  he  had  the  chance. 

Supposing  he  married  !  Well,  he  knew  that  the 
good  fortune  which  had  attended  his  career  would 
cease.  But  he  had  climbed  high  enough  to  dis- 
pense with  help  now,  if  he  chose  to  risk  it.  He 


276  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

did  not  see  that  he  could  advance  much  more  in 
his  present  position,  and  he  was  at  an  age  when 
marriage  looks  attractive.  Laurie's  very  coldness 
recommended  her  as  a  wife,  for  he  had  tested  too 
many  women's  virtue  to  believe  in  it,  save  perhaps 
with  such  natures  as  hers.  If  she  could  resist  him 
she  would  resist  other  men — he  did  not  compre- 
hend, but  he  had  been  forced  to  acknowledge,  her 
principles — and  he  felt  confident  that  he  alone 
would  have  the  right  of  her  as  her  husband.  His 
very  point  of  view  had  become  coarsened,  even 
though  he  did  St.  Lawrence  Desmond  shallow 
justice. 

There  remained  Laurie's  own  consent  to  be 
gained,  but  at  least  he  would  have  a  fair  chance 
with  her  if  he  spoke  honourably  and  openly.  He 
was  not  sanguine,  for  his  old  intuitive  sense  was 
still  too  keen  to  mislead  him  ;  but  he  was  feverishly 
anxious  to  "  try  his  luck,"  to  make  at  least  a 
beginning  with  Laurie.  She  should  understand 
him — she  should  no  longer  be  able  to  relegate  him 
mutely  to  the  ranks  of  those  so  beyond  the  pale 
that  they  could  have  no  part  in  her  life.  No  man 
who  had  asked  a  woman  to  be  his  wife  could  count 
absolutely  for  nothing  in  her  memory  of  him  at 
least.  Laurie  was  well  connected  too  and  well 
dowered,  but  that  did  not  really  enter  into  his 
calculations,  so  absorbed  was  he  in  the  desire  to 
dominate  herself.  It  was  the  more  significant  be- 
cause up  till  now  every  woman  who  had  been  an 
influence  in  Amyas'  life,  with  the  exception  of 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  277 

Dorothy  Culverton,  had  been  his  material  aid 
though  she  might  have  assisted  his  moral  retrogres- 
sion. Without  exactly  calculating  upon  it  he  had 
always  looked  for  their  assistance  in  his  career — he 
had  spoken  the  truth  long  since  to  Anstice  Le 
Croix  when  he  said  that  women  had  made  him 
what  he  was. 

Even  the  bringing  his  mind  to  such,  to  him, 
weighty  conclusions,  with  regard  to  Laurie,  did  not, 
however,  clinch  the  matter.  He  awaited  an  op- 
portunity to  bring  off  his  final  coup  in  vain.  She 
was  quite  as  anxious  to  avoid  a  tete-a-tete  as  he  was 
to  obtain  it,  and  though  she  treated  him  with  the 
same  courtesy  in  public  which  she  extended  to  any 
other  man  on  board,  he  never  contrived  to  catch 
her  alone.  She  would  seem,  within  the  narrow 
limits  of  his  own  boat,  to  be  somewhat  at  his 
mercy ;  but  a  single-minded  woman  bent  on  avoid- 
ing danger  is  safeguarded  from  any  man  while  they 
are  both  within  the  bounds  of  civilized  society. 
Amyas  could  only  wait  and  watch,  lest  bolder 
tactics  should  defeat  his  own  ends ;  while  Laurie, 
recognizing  that  she  was  still  being  pursued,  never 
relaxed  her  guard  to  foil  him.  To  put  herself 
under  the  protection  of  any  one — Mr.  Melville,  for 
instance — was  a  confession  of  weakness  of  which 
she  never  thought.  Her  very  simplicity  of  creed 
made  her  own  fortitude  seem  quite  sufficient  to 
her. 

After  leaving  Cape  Verde  a  slight  epidemic  of 
fever  showed  itself  amongst  the  passengers,  but  it 


278  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

was  mostly  in  the  second-class,  and  none  of  the 
first-class  passengers  kept  their  berths  even,  except 
the  vicar  of  St.  Jervoise.  Laurie  missed  him  at 
breakfast  one  morning,  but  thought  he  was  merely 
late,  and  meant  to  joke  him  about  it  when  he  came 
on  deck.  He  did  not  appear  at  luncheon,  however, 
and  she  inquired  for  him,  and  learned  that  he  was 
slightly  feverish  and  had  kept  his  cabin.  Mildred 
Hyde  had  been  a  victim  the  day  before,  and 
Laurie  thought  little  of  it,  for  the  ailment  had  not 
been  alarming — a  slight  rash,  and  a  dry  burning 
skin  succeeded  by  a  shivering  fit,  being  the  only 
symptoms  in  the  worst  cases.  In  a  few  hours  it 
generally  passed  off,  and  the  doctor  had  only  pre- 
scribed mild  doses  of  quinine.  When  the  next 
day  passed  without  Mr.  Melville  reappearing,  how- 
ever, Laurie  was  really  sorry  and  a  little  anxious. 
They  had  become  something  like  intimate  friends 
by  this  time,  and  she  valued  the  courteous  old 
clergyman  the  more  for  his  marked  contrast  to  that 
other  masculine  personality  at  present  paramount 
in  her  life.  She  knew,  too,  that  Mr.  Melville  suf- 
fered from  heart  complaint,  which  had  been  the 
cause  of  his  taking  the  voyage  to  Africa  in  the 
hope  of  re-establishing  his  health.  With  vague 
misgivings  she  waylaid  the  Doctor  and  inquired  for 
her  friend. 

"  Oh,  old  Melville ! "  said  the  Officer,  with  a 
worried  knit  in  his  brows.  "  Yes,  he's  been  rather 
bad — the  only  bad  case  I've  had.  His  temperature 
is  too  high." 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  279 

"  Surely  it  is  not  dangerous  !  I  know  his  heart 
is  weak." 

"  Oh,  you  needn't  be  anxious — it  is  only  Cape 
Verde  fever,  really.  He'd  be  all  right  if  I  could 
get  his  cabin  altered.  The  one  he  has  is  too  close, 
and  they  make  such  a  confounded  noise  over- 
head. There  are  the  sports  coming  off  this  after- 
noon, too  ! " 

"  But  why  don't  you  move  him,  then?  " 

"  The  boat  is  too  full  unfortunately.  His  cabin 
is  one  of  the  few  single  ones  on  the  ship,  and  I 
can't  get  any  one  to  change  who  could  cram  in. 
I  wanted  to  have  him  moved  into  mine,  or  else  up 
on  the  boat  deck — Travers  would  bunk  with  the 
third  Officer  with  pleasure." 

"  Well  ?  "  said  Laurie  impatiently  as  he  paused. 

"  Well,  you  see,  the  Skipper  won't  have  it.  He 
says  it  isn't  etiquette  for  passengers  to  be  up  on  the 
boat  deck,  and  he  won't  let  me  shift  my  quarters 
either.  Of  course  he's  right  in  theory — the  Purser 
and  I  are  placed  according  to  our  work,  and  I'm 
next  the  surgery,  and  it  would  be  a  bit  awkward 
to  be  in  Mr.  Melville's  cabin,  but " 

The  blood  had  risen  slowly  over  Laurie's  usually 
pale  face,  and  her  eyes  were  the  eyes  of  an  offended 
god — there  was  nothing  feminine  about  them.  She 
spoke  slowly,  with  supreme  contempt. 

"  If  it  is  a  case  of  illness  I  should  have  thought 
that  Captain  Amyas'  prejudices  might  have  given 
way  to  mere  humanity ! " 

"  Oh  well,  you  know,  it  wasn't  as  if  he  were 


280  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

dangerously  ill,"  said  the  Doctor  with  a  slightly 
embarrassed  smile.  "  I  could  have  exerted  my 
authority  if  he  had  been.  It  did  not  really  matter, 
only  I  thought  he  would  have  been  better  off,  if 
the  Skipper  hadn't  turned  rusty." 

"  Is  it  mere  prejudice  ?  "  said  Laurie,  with  a  flash 
of  anger  in  her  threatening  eyes. 

"  Well,  he  doesn't  love  parsons,  you  see  !  " 

"  I  see.  So  Mr.  Melville's  honest  profession  is  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  his  health,  because  the  man  in 
command  of  your  boat  has  a  despot's  power  and  a 
despot's  meanness ! " 

"  Come,  Miss  Desmond,  that's  rather  rough ! 
The  Skipper  is  within  his  rights." 

"  He  is  abusing  his  rights  !  " 

"  I  shouldn't  care  to  tell  him  so  ! "  said  the 
Doctor  with  a  shrug  of  his  shoulders.  "  Perhaps 
you  would  like  to  try  your  persuasions  for  me  ?  " 

The  flood  of  colour  in  her  face  deepened  with 
annoyance  until  it  seemed  to  burn  her.  She  looked 
at  him  in  her  most  direct  fashion  to  discover  his 
meaning ;  but  he  was  perfectly  honest. 

"  Why  do  you  ask  me  ?  "  she  said. 

"  Because  you  are  the  one  woman  on  the  ship 
who  wouldn't  touch  him  with  a  pair  of  tongs,  and 
he  knows  it !  "  said  the  Doctor  bluntly.  "  Forgive 
my  having  noticed  it,  but  I  know  you  don't  join  in 
the  general  Captain-worship  that  goes  on.  If  you 
asked  a  favour  you  would  be  more  likely  to  have  it 
granted  for  that  very  reason.  I  believe  your  in- 
fluence would  go  further  than  most — but  I  quite 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  281 

understand  your  reluctance  to  ask  it,  and  please 
do  not  think  I  am  pressing  the  matter,"  he  added 
hastily.  "  Old  Melville  is  in  no  danger." 

Laurie  turned  away  without  speaking.  Once 
more  it  seemed  that  the  Fates  were  playing  her  a 
sorry  trick,  and  driving  her  into  more  intimate  re- 
lations with  Amyas.  In  the  first  instance  her  con- 
science had  demanded  that  she  should  warn  him  of 
his  personal  danger  ;  in  the  second  she  had  travelled 
on  his  boat  for  Mildred  Hyde's  sake.  Now  it 
appeared  that  she  was  to  go  a  step  further,  and 
make  an  appeal  to  him  for  Mr.  Melville.  In  all 
three  cases  her  simple  sense  of  what  was  right 
for  herself — no  intercourse  with  Amyas  whatever 
— had  been  complicated  by  the  claims  of  other 
people. 

But  to  put  herself  under  an  obligation,  even  in 
some  one  else's  behalf,  was  impossible !  Her 
square  white  chin  went  up  with  the  mere  intoler- 
able thought.  She  saw  it  all  in  the  light  of  those 
other  interviews  in  his  cabin,  in  both  of  which  he 
had  misconstrued  her  attitude,  and  taken  immediate 
and  coarse  advantage.  If  she  deliberately  sought 
him  with  the  added  handicap  of  a  favour  to  ask, 
she  sickened  to  think  how  she  would  be  met.  It 
was  impossible.  No  one  could  ask  or  expect  her 
to  put  herself  in  such  a  position  with  a  man  of 
Amyas'  stamp. 

Mr.  Melville,  too,  might  get  better.  Laurie 
steeled  her  heart  and  went  to  luncheon,  with  the  re- 
proach of  his  empty  chair  spoiling  her  appetite ; 


282  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

later  on  she  wandered  up  to  the  promenade  deck  and 
looked  on  blankly  at  the  sports,  shivering  a  little 
at  each  burst  of  applause  and  the  noise  of  running 
feet.  How  this  must  sound  overhead !  How  im- 
possible it  must  be  to  rest !  She  thought  of  the 
kindly,  cheery  old  face  and  the  cordial  manner,  and 
her  eyes  almost  rilled  with  tears  because  she  could 
not  help  him.  If  it  had  been  any  one  else  to 
whom  she  must  appeal  she  would  at  least  have 
made  the  effort — but  this,  though  she  was  by  no 
means  at  one  with  the  Doctor  as  to  her  success,  she 
would  not  even  try  to  do. 

There  was  to  be  a  dance  that  night,  the  last  dance 
of  the  voyage.  They  would  keep  it  up  late,  and 
the  noise  of  the  dancing  and  the  band  would  be 
worse  than  the  sports.  She  counted  it  almost  a 
godsend  that  Mildred  Hyde  had  a  headache,  and 
did  not  want  to  go  on  deck  after  dinner.  Laurie 
sat  with  her  in  the  cabin  till  she  fell  asleep,  trying 
not  to  hear  the  broken  music  of  the  band  and  the 
sound  of  the  flying  feet.  Her  stern  grey  eyes  did 
not  follow  the  open  book  lying  on  her  knee,  and 
her  thoughts  roamed  restlessly  between  the  narrow 
cabin  where  Mr.  Melville  could  not  sleep,  and  the 
man  whose  caprice  was  the  mean  cause.  She  was 
harsh  in  her  indignation,  and  hated  D'Arcy  Amyas 
for  his  autocratic  power  and  what  she  felt  was  con- 
temptible in  his  exercise  of  it. 

By  and  by  there  came  a  lull  in  the  sounds  over- 
head, the  music  and  the  rhythm  of  feet  stopped. 
It  was  barely  eleven  o'clock,  and  she  judged  that 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  283 

the  dancers  had  gone  to  supper.  It  was  laid  in  the 
saloon,  and  the  noise  of  the  talking  and  movement 
there  would  be  even  nearer  to  the  sick  man.  With 
a  desperate  desire  to  distract  herself  she  forced  her 
brain  to  follow  a  few  lines  of  Emerson's  Essays, 
which  she  was  still  mechanically  holding  — 

"  A  duty  is  no  sooner  divined  than  it  becomes 
binding  on  us." 

Laurie  started  up  suddenly,  as  if  thought  had 
grown  intolerable,  and  left  the  cabin  after  one 
glance  at  Mildred  to  assure  herself  that  she  still 
slept.  The  alleyway  was  deserted,  and  Laurie 
turned  in  the  direction  of  the  fos'c'le  and  made  her 
way  as  far  as  the  third-class.  As  she  emerged  on 
to  the  lower  deck  she  saw  that  the  night  had  turned 
foggy — beyond  the  ship's  side  was  a  grey  blanket 
drawn  about  her  in  dense  folds.  There  was  an 
awful  stillness  in  this  unknown  element  into  which 
they  were  driving,  for  the  speed  did  not  seem  to 
her  to  have  been  slowed  down,  though  she  now 
heard  that  the  fog-horn  was  going  incessantly.  The 
girl  ran  up  the  companion  to  the  promenade  deck 
quickly,  as  if  the  impulse  of  movement  were  still 
upon  her ;  the  deck  was  closed  in  with  bunting  for 
the  dance,  but  between  the  extemporized  walls  she 
caught  a  glimpse  of  that  same  dense  drapery, 
mysterious  and  implacable,  folding  the  ship  like  a 
shroud.  For  a  minute  she  caught  at  the  rail  gasp- 
ing, with  a  nervous  fancy  that  the  fog  creeping 
round  the  Princess  shut  out  the  world  of  safety  and 
law  like  an  untoward  fate.  There  was  another 


284  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

world — one  of  strange  passion  and  lost  boundaries 
— inside  this  thick  mantle,  and  she  was  all  alone 
with  it.  The  ship  was  moving  in  a  sphere  of  her 
own,  a  phantom  thing,  not  of  earth  and  every-day 
life  at  all. 

The  deck  was  deserted,  even  the  band  having 
taken  the  opportunity  to  go  below  and  refresh,  but 
from  behind  the  half- drawn  curtain  of  the  Captain's 
cabin  shone  a  steady  light,  and  some  one  was  mov- 
ing about  there.  He  was  there  then  ;  she  had  had 
a  momentary  hope  that  he  would  be  on  the  bridge, 
and  that  she  might  have  a  respite  without  being  able 
to  help  it.  Her  feet  seemed  suddenly  weighted 
with  lead  as  she  went  slowly  and  more  slowly 
towards  the  doorway.  The  fog  was  here  too ; 
through  the  grey  veil  she  saw  the  electric  globes 
staring  at  her  like  two  stricken  eyes. 

Her  light  knock  at  the  door  was  not  answered  for 
an  instant.  Then  Amyas'  voice  said  "  Come  in  !  " 
in  the  crisp  tone  of  his  command.  He  thought  it 
was  one  of  his  Officers,  believing  that  all  the  pas- 
sengers were  safely  engaged  in  the  amusement  he 
had  encouraged  to  distract  their  attention  from  the 
fog.  No  sailor  likes  fog,  but  Amyas  was  not 
nervous  even  when  it  threatened  to  be  thick  in  the 
Channel  as  it  did  to-night.  He  had  but  just  come  off 
the  bridge,  and  run  down  to  his  room  for  a  cigar  to 
keep  the  fog  out  of  his  lungs,  leaving  Somers,  the 
third  Mate,  on  watch.  The  Navigating  Officer 
was  getting  his  rest  before  the  hour  came  for  him 
to  go  on  duty,  and  the  Chief  Officer  had  been  act- 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  285 

ing  as  master  of  the  ceremonies  at  the  dance,  with 
the  assistance  of  his  junior.  Had  Amyas  removed 
all  his  Officers  from  their  midst,  contrary  to  his  cus- 
tom, he  feared  that  the  passengers  might  see  cause 
for  alarm — which  he  did  not  wish.  At  any  rate  he 
preferred  to  share  the  watch  himself  until  the  others 
should  have  finished  their  social  duties,  and  even 
then  he  might  not  see  fit  to  turn  in. 

He  looked  towards  the  door,  expecting  that  the 
Chief  Officer  had  caught  him  for  a  moment's  con- 
sultation, and  saw  Laurie  Desmond.  By  some  law 
of  telepathy  she  had  been  in  his  thoughts  all  night, 
and  the  feeling  that  she  had  baffled  him  and  would 
have  escaped  from  his  influence  altogether  in  a 
certain  number  of  hours  now,  had  made  him  set  his 
teeth  in  impotent  resentment  of  the  fate  which  had 
thrust  this  girl  into  his  life  to  shake  his  satisfaction 
in  himself  and  it.  He  could  not  make  her  care  for 
him — he  could  not  even  wrest  a  chance  to  make  a 
last  appeal  to  her  from  her  icy  determination  to 
have  nothing  to  do  with  him.  And  now  behold  she 
stood  before  him  in  the  doorway,  very  white,  very 
motionless,  and  with  a  purpose  of  some  kind  in 
seeking  him. 

For  a  minute  he  did  not  speak.  They  stood  there 
in  the  little  brightly- lighted  space,  two  warring  per- 
sonalities, conscious  of  each  other's  alien  strength, 
while  the  ship  throbbed  steadily  on  her  way. 
Through  the  silence  Laurie  heard  the  incessant 
scream  of  the  fog  signals,  and  faintly  from  below 
the  clatter  and  talking  of  the  passengers  at  supper. 


286  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

It  seemed  to  her  that  the  ship  was  like  a  thing  in 
terror  of  her  life — a  human  thing  mad  with  fear  of 
the  unknown  element  into  which  she  was  forced, 
blind  and  helpless — while  they  all  went  on  carelessly 
laughing  and  making  merry. 

"  What  is  it  ?  "  said  Amyas  at  last  hoarsely. 
"  I  want  to  speak  to  you.  May  I  come  in  ?  " 
"  Yes — I  can  only  give  you  a  few  minutes.  I 
must  be  back  on  the  bridge."  Yet  he  calculated 
hurriedly  in  his  own  mind  that  Somers  was  per- 
fectly competent,  and  it  was  safe  to  leave  him  by 
himself;  he  was  urged  by  the  most  powerful  per- 
sonal desire  he  had  ever  known  to  grasp  this  chance 
offered  him,  even  though  it  was  against  his  soundest 
principles.  The  fog  was  lifting,  through  one  of 
those  inexplicable  freaks  of  weather  at  sea,  and 
indeed  for  some  half-hour  it  was  possible  to  see  not 
only  the  lights  but  the  dim  outlines  of  passing 
ships.  The  fog-horn  was  still  blaring  out  its  deaf- 
ening warning,  but  as  Amyas  cast  a  hasty  glance 
towards  the  doorway  he  saw  that  the  night  was 
comparatively  clear — and  there  was  the  woman  he 
wanted  "  so  badly "  within  unexpected  reach ! 
Nothing  could  happen  in  his  absence — he  must 
wait  a  minute  and  hear  what  she  wanted,  and  the 
delight  of  sudden  hope  made  him  feel  half  reckless, 
half  lightheaded.  He  turned  involuntarily  and  drew 
the  curtain  over  the  doorway  ;  she  heard  the  impa- 
tient rattle  of  the  rings  under  his  hand,  while  she 
stood,  without  knowing  it,  just  where  Cherry  had 
stood  the  first  time  she  came  into  this  same  place. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  287 

"  I  want  to  ask  a  favour  of  you — for  Mr.  Melville." 

She  spoke  in  curt  sentences  like  a  child  who  re- 
peats too  strenuous  a  lesson,  and  her  voice  was  not 
that  of  one  who  asks  a  favour.  He  saw  her  lift  her 
chin  in  a  way  peculiar  to  her,  and  met  the  resent- 
ment in  the  stone-grey  eyes  with  a  glint  in  his  own. 
She  walked  deliberately  across  the  cabin  and  stood 
with  her  back  to  his  berth  as  once  before  when  she 
had  told  him  about  Cherry.  He  remembered  the 
attitude,  which  suggested  a  man  with  his  back  to 
the  wall  fighting  against  unfair  odds.  His  own  face 
lowered  and  hardened. 

"  What  about  him  ?  " 

"  He  is  ill  with  fever,  and  his  cabin  is  an  inner 
one  where  all  the  noise  reaches  him.  Could  he  not 
be  moved  ?" 

"  Certainly,  if  the  Purser  can  find  an  empty  cabin 
or  arrange  an  exchange." 

Her  face  altered  from  white  to  red,  and  the  slum- 
bering indignation  in  her  heart  woke  once  more. 
"  You  know  that  is  impossible ! "  she  said  curtly. 
"  There  is  no  single  berth  cabin  which  would  do. 
Why  cannot  he  exchange  with  the  Doctor,  or  be 
moved  up  to  the  boat  deck  ?  " 

"  Because  I  do  not  choose  to  have  my  decision 
questioned,  Miss  Desmond,"  said  Amyas  quietly. 
"  I  see  that  the  suggestion  havin'  been  made  to  me 
has  reached  your  ears.  I  have  already  declined  to 
permit  it." 

She  looked  at  him  steadily  for  a  moment,  the 
condemnation  in  her  set  young  face  driving  him 


288  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

mad,  though  she  was  unconscious  of  it.  "  You  are 
a  tyrant !  "  she  said  deliberately. 

"  My  dear  child,  how  can  you  assert  that  kind  of 
heroic  nonsense  when  you  can't  pretend  to  under- 
stand my  reasons  for  giving  certain  orders  !  "  he 
said,  frowning,  but  with  a  half-smile  as  if  he  found 
her  indeed  so  childish  that  he  would  not  be  vexed. 
"  I  am  Master  of  this  ship,  and  know  what  I  am 
doin'.  I  will  have  none  of  the  passengers  berthed 
up  on  the  boat  deck,  parsons  or  not." 

"  If  Mr.  Melville  were  not  a  clergyman  you 
would  not  have  made  this  difficulty,"  said  Laurie 
unwisely.  "  It  is  simply  prejudice." 

Undoubtedly  she  was  very  fearless,  to  face  the 
Master  of  the  Princess  with  such  an  accusation. 
The  controlled,  haughty  surprise  with  which  he 
looked  at  her  reached  her  even  through  her  bigoted 
conviction  that  she  was  telling  a  blunt,  unwelcome 
truth.  All  the  acquired  polish  and  training  of  his 
life  stood  Amyas  in  excellent  service  at  the  mo- 
ment, and  it  was  Laurie  who  was  at  a  disadvantage. 

"  Miss  Desmond,  you  are  presumin'  on  the  fact 
that  you  are  a  young  lady,  to  say  things  that  I  do 
not  choose  to  resent,"  he  said  coolly.  "  May  I  ask 
you  to  leave  the  management  of  my  ship  in  my 
hands,  and  kindly  not  to  interfere  further  ?  " 

When  Laurie  was  really  bitterly  hurt,  or  offended, 
or  touched,  down  to  the  depths  of  her  nature,  she 
turned  white  instead  of  red.  She  was  as  ashen  as  a 
lifeless  woman  now,  and  her  lips  were  stiff  when  she 
spoke. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  289 

"  I  beg  your  pardon.  The  mistake  was  mine.  I 
wish " — nothing  but  her  rigid  sense  of  her  own 
duty  could  have  driven  her  on  now  where  a  weaker 
woman  would  have  let  well  alone — "  I  wish  you  could 
have  seen  your  way  to  do  me  the  favour,  which  I 
am  sorry  I  asked  in  an  offensive  manner." 

She  spoke  very  simply,  and  leaving  her  position 
against  the  berth  she  made  a  step  towards  the  door- 
way. It  required  all  her  will  to  keep  herself  steady, 
and  Amyas  was  between  her  and  the  way  of  retreat. 
She  stood  helpless  till  he  should  move. 

Up  on  the  bridge  Somers,  the  third  Officer,  was 
aware  of  a  light  on  the  port  side — the  lights  of  a 
large  boat  riding  low  in  the  water,  which  had 
silently  crept  inside  the  curtain  of  fog  until  she  was 
visible  in  the  clearer  atmosphere  immediately 
around  the  Princess.  Shje  was  some  half-mile 
away,  and  he  reckoned  her  as  a  cargo  boat,  even 
while  he  ordered  the  Company's  signals  to  be 
shown.  The  proximity  of  the  boat  made  him 
vaguely  uneasy,  and  he  wished  that  the  Captain 
would  come  back  to  the  bridge.  Sole  charge  was 
no  light  matter,  and  the  fog  might  shut  down  on 
them  again  at  any  minute,  with  the  chance  of  a  col- 
lision. The  cargo  boat  hung  in  sight,  and  he  could 
not  understand  her  proceedings.  The  Princess's 
fog-horn  shrieked  as  if  warning  the  strange  boat 
away ;  but  she  blew  no  syren  herself.  .  .  . 

Down  in  the  Captain's  cabin  the  mental  strain 
shut  out  all  thought  of  the  material  world.  Amyas 
did  not  even  hear  the  fog-horn,  though  his  practised 


290  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

ear  would  have  missed  it  had  it  ceased.  He  was 
conscious  of  nothing  but  the  girl's  slight  repellent 
figure  and  humiliated  white  face. 

"  I  would  do  so  if  I  could — for  you ! "  he  said 
suddenly,  his  voice  hoarsening  and  his  face  altering 
from  its  mask  of  cold  denial.  "  I  wish  you  hadn't 
asked  me."  Then  his  calm  broke  up  altogether, 
the  raging  jealousy  in  him  betraying  itself  and 
overmastering  his  acquired  manners.  "  What  the 
devil  makes  you  take  this  interest  in  the  damned 
priest  ?  "  he  said  fiercely. 

She  stepped  back  from  him,  startled  and  horrified, 
and  once  more  unconsciously  fell  into  her  position 
by  the  berth.  His  face  was  flushed  and  broken 
out  of  all  pretence  of  indifference,  and  he  looked  at 
her  with  wild  resentment. 

"  Do  you  care  for  him  ?  "  he  said  harshly. 

"  Care  for  him !  For  Mr.  Melville !  You  must 
be  mad  ! "  she  stammered,  frightened  by  the  storm 
of  his  words  and  manner,  and  outraged  by  the  un- 
mistakable suggestion  of  his  question.  "  Can  I  not 
speak  to  a  man  with  common  courtesy  but  I  must 
be  credited  with  a  certain  tenderness  for  him  ?  "  she 
exclaimed,  with  a  sense  of  personal  injury.  "  Be- 
sides, he  is  an  old  man,  and  has  been  kind  to  me  as 
he  might  to  his  own  daughter." 

"  I  don't  know  what  your  '  common  courtesy'  is 
like,"  said  D'Arcy  gloomily.  "  You  have  never 
shown  it  to  me  ! " 

She  looked  up  at  him  with  a  wordless  answer  in 
her  eyes.  Who  could  show  this  man  common 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  291 

courtesy  without  risking  an  encroachment,  or  defil- 
ing themselves  by  the  mere  intercourse?  she 
thought.  She  drew  her  garments  metaphorically 
away  from  the  suggestion. 

"  If  you  would  be  kinder  to  me,"  D'Arcy 
stammered  suddenly,  carried  away  by  his  own 
impulse,  "  you  could  do  anythin'  with  me — I'd 
let  you  walk  over  me  if  you  liked.  Can't  you? 
Give  me  the  hope  of  bein'  somethin'  to  you,  and 
see  what  you  can  make  of  me !  Come,  I'm  sure 
you  approve  of  missions — here's  a  mission  ready  to 
your  hand  ! " 

He  spoke  fast  and  excitedly  now,  and  moved 
nearer  to  her  with  his  hands  outstretched,  as  if  in 
appeal.  But  she  nearly  uttered  a  cry  of  fear,  her 
panic  making  her  think  that  he  was  going  to  seize  her. 

"  What  are  you  talking  about  ?  "  she  said  breath- 
lessly. "  What  do  you  mean  ?  I  have  no  influence 
over  you — I  wish  to  have  none  !  " 

"  You  can't  help  it — you've  got  it  already  !  "  he 
retorted  recklessly.  "  You've  been  gainin'  a  power 
over  me  ever  since  I've  known  you  that  no  other 
woman  ever  had.  You  can't  get  rid  of  that  re- 
sponsibility— take  the  rest !  " 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  Be  my  wife !  "  he  said  thickly,  and  the  blood 
beat  in  his  throat  and  threatened  to  choke  him  in 
his  supreme  excitement.  "  I've  never  asked  another 
woman  that — but  I  ask  you  !  I  want  you — I  want 
you  so  badly!"  The  man's  passionate  utterance 
resolved  itself  into  the  old  boyish  phrase.  He  fell 


292  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

back  on  his  own  simplicity  to  try  and  express  his 
most  potent  desire. 

But  the  girl  saw  only  the  degradation  of  what  he 
offered  her,  according  to  her  own  standpoint.  In  a 
flash  of  horror  she  thought  what  it  would  be  to  give 
this  man  the  right  to  possess  her  body  and  soul — 
to  assert  and  exercise  that  right  in  every  way,  as  he 
most  certainly  would.  She  fancied  his  pressing 
such  a  claim,  in  order  to  please  himself,  without  the 
least  consideration  for  her.  It  was  not  only  ma- 
terial things  that  made  Amyas'  demand  dreadful 
and  unsupportable  to  Laurie;  the  idea  of  such  a 
mind  as  his  in  free  communication  with  her  own, 
made  her  quite  as  revolted.  As  to  that  influence 
over  him  which  he  asserted  she  possessed,  she  did 
not  believe  in  its  reality  at  all. 

"  I  could  not !  "  she  exclaimed,  with  such  obvious 
repulsion  that  he  stopped  short  as  if  she  had  lifted 
her  strong  young  hand  and  struck  him.  "  Think 
what  I  know  of — of  what  you  have  done !  How 
can  you  ask  any  clean  woman  to  so  much  as — as 
look  at  you  !  " 

"  Ah — don't !  "  His  voice  was  like  a  caught  sob. 
Through  the  sudden  cruelty  of  her  words  he  was 
brought  to  realize,  at  least  dimly,  what  he  had  lost ; 
he  saw  with  all  his  horrible  quickness  of  intuition 
that  there  had  been  another  side  of  life  at  which  he 
had  never  cared  to  look.  He  had  forfeited  it  with- 
out a  pang  of  regret ;  but  now  he  saw  himself  as 
abominable,  beyond  the  pale,  in  the  eyes  of  a  "  clean 
woman." 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  293 

"  I've  never  had  a  chance ! "  he  pleaded  Coarsely, 
in  a  wild  appeal  to  some  beautiful  and  holy  thing 
which  he  saw  incarnated  in  the  girl  before  him. 
"  Won't  you  help  me  ?  I  roughed  it  since  I  was  a 
little  chap,  and  I  lost  touch  with — with  what  you 
good  women  take  as  natural.  Perhaps  it  wasn't 
natural  to  me,  and  there  was  no  one  to  keep  me  up 
to  it,  and  so  I  lost  it !  "  He  looked  at  the  repellent 
young  face,  and  saw  his  judgment  there — a  reluctant 
judgment  perhaps,  for  Laurie  was,  as  he  said,  a  good 
woman,  but  justice  without  mercy  nevertheless.  It 
takes  a  Christ  to  accept  repentance,  and  not  to 
shrink  from  the  sinner ;  the  Good  Women  who  fol- 
low Him  have  always  been  as  the  Wise  Virgins,  and 
shut  the  gate  with  that  "  Too  late ! "  flung  in  the 
face  of  what  they,  as  mortals,  condemn. 

"  I  am  sorry,"  said  Laurie,  with  a  little  set  to  her 
head  that  thrust  his  sins  between  them. 

He  looked  at  her  with  the  helplessness  of  some 
strayed  dog  that  can  only  expect  kicks  or  blows 
from  the  superior  race  of  humanity.  In  the  silence 
something  rang — six  bells  it  seemed — and  still  the 
fog-horn  cried  its  warning  to  the  dangerous,  desolate 
seas.  .  .  . 

The  movements  of  the  cargo  boat  which  had  so 
puzzled  the  Officer  on  the  watch  had  resolved  them- 
selves into  her  being  put  about.  He  could  not  un- 
derstand it,  or  her  signals  either.  She  was  racing 
the  Princess  now,  only  a  hundred  yards  or  so  away, 
and  was  asking  questions  by  flashes.  He  read  the 
Morse  off,  as  he  stood  there  directing  the  answer. 


294  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

"  The  Seagull  of  Hull — Davitt  and  Co.  Tell 
them  we  are  the  Princess — what  on  earth  makes 
them  ask  ?  Have  they  lost  their  bearings  ?  " 

The  Seagull  flashed  back,  "  Who  is  her  Master  ?  " 

"  Have  we  got  a  criminal  on  board,  and  is  this  a 
police  raid?"  muttered  Somers.  "I  wish  the  Old 
Man  would  come  up  and  give  his  own  visiting- 
card  ! "  But  thinking  that  it  might  be  something 
serious,  and  in  the  absence  of  instructions,  he  flashed 
back  the  master's  name  across  the  short  space  of 
foggy  sea  between  the  boats. 

"  Captain  Amyas  !  "  .     .     . 

The  owner  of  the  name  turned  at  that  moment 
from  the  denial  in  Laurie  Desmond's  face,  and  the 
iron  of  his  despair  entered  into  his  soul.  "  You  are 
not  sorry — you  are  hard  !  "  he  said  bitterly.  Then, 
as  she  moved  to  pass  him,  he  caught  her  gown  in 
his  strong  hands  as  if  he  recognized  a  last  hope  of 
salvation. 

"  Laurie  !  Laurie !  you're  thrustin'  me  further  into 
the  hell  you've  just  shown  me.  I  never  realized  it 
before — I  know  I'm  a  dam'  bad  lot — don't  leave  me 
there — help  me  to  get  rid  of  some  of  the  mire — 
won't  you  ?— won't  you  ?  "  he  prayed,  groping  with 
uncertain,  stammering  words,  after  a  dim  ideal.  It 
was  strange  to  D'Arcy  Amyas  to  hesitate,  or  to 
reach  up  to  a  higher  standard,  and  he  felt  out  for 
something  to  help  him  in  the  new  faint  effort. 

Laurie  was  not  sufficiently  interested  in  him  to 
concern  herself  with  his  salvation,  and  she  shrank 
from  his  eagerness  with  the  distaste  of  her  very 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  295 

purity.  What  was  this  tardy  repentance  but  a  new 
phase  of  his  uncontrolled  passions  !  The  dislike  of 
such  a  type  as  D'Arcy  Amyas  was  in  her  very 
movement  as  she  turned  her  fine  cold  face  away 
from  him.  Her  own  freedom  from  contamination 
was  more  to  her  than  his  possible  redemption — she 
desired  no  influence  over  him,  as  she  had  said — for 
she  hated  impurity  with  every  sense  she  possessed, 
and  had  no  pity  for  it  where  she  suspected  its 
presence. 

"  Let  me  go ! "  she  said  quietly,  her  stone-grey 
eyes  turned  to  the  doorway,  and  her  whole  body 
alert  to  escape.  "  I  will  have  nothing  to  do  with 
such  men  as  you.  You  have  forfeited  your  right  to 
any  decent  woman's  love  long  since — you  could 
neither  value  nor  understand  it." 

She  felt  her  gown  free,  and  sprang  through  the 
doorway.  In  the  background  of  her  mind  was  an 
impression  that  he  had  fallen  back  from  the  blow  of 
her  last  words,  and  she  seemed  to  know  that  he  was 
leaning  rather  heavily  against  the  writing-table,  like 
a  man  who  is  holding  up  under  a  gunshot  wound — 
Colonel  Desmond  had  once  described  it  to  her. 
Her  heart  was  throbbing  with  the  late  excitement, 
and  her  knees  trembled  beneath  her,  but  she  was 
not  softened  for  knowing  that  he  still  leaned  where 
she  had  left  him,  numb  with  the  blow  she  had  dealt 
— the  man  who  had  suddenly  realized  that  he  who 
had  reverenced  no  woman  was  reverenced  of  none. 
He  was  outside  the  pale  by  his  own  action ;  no  good 
woman  would  defile  herself  by  touching  him  if  she 


296  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

had  her  choice.  And  he  yearned  after  this  un- 
known purity  of  the  Good  Woman  as  though  it 
were  divine. 

The  Princess  was  still  labouring  through  the  fog, 
which,  as  Somers  had  feared,  had  thickened  again 
as  suddenly  as  though  they  had  driven  straight  into 
another  wall  of  it.  He  had  lost  all  trace  of  the 
other  boat  as  suddenly  as  she  had  first  loomed  like 
a  phantom  thing  through  the  thinned  grey  veil. 
The  Princess 's  fog-horn  shrieked  with  terror,  and  as 
Laurie  reached  the  deckhouse,  the  deck  seemed  to 
quiver  under  her  feet  There  was  something  hap- 
pening— a  grinding — a  shock  to  the  whole  vessel. 
Yet  it  was  so  slight,  or  so  sudden,  that  no  one 
seemed  to  be  alarmed,  for  as  she  paused  she  heard 
nothing — no  sound  of  running  feet  or  any  alarm. 
But  she  stopped  short,  her  movement  arrested  as  if 
without  her  will.  Then  she  turned  and  ran  back 
along  the  deck  to  Amyas'  cabin. 

She  met  him  just  as  he  tore  aside  the  curtain  and 
stepped  out  on  to  the  deck.  She  could  not  frame 
the  words  "  Have  we  struck  ?  "  for  her  recent  excite- 
ment had  jarred  her  nerves,  but  she  laid  her  hand 
on  his  arm  and  looked  up  at  him  to  learn  the  dan- 
ger from  his  face.  All  the  hardness  had  gone  out 
of  her  own ;  she  was  no  longer  a  woman,  outraged 
and  condemnatory — the  startled  fear  in  her  eyes 
made  her  like  a  child  who  seeks  succour  of  one 
more  powerful  than  itself.  They  were  on  the  star- 
board side  of  the  ship,  and  nothing  was  visible 
round  them  save  the  grey  fog  beyond  the  canvas, 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  297 

which  barely  showed  the  hungry  black  sea  as  the 
boat  plunged  and  rolled  uneasily.  If  another  vessel 
had  struck  them  it  must  have  been  amidships  on  the 
port  side,  abaft  the  bridge,  fracturing  the  bulkhead 
between  the  two  largest  compartments  and  practic- 
ally opening  them  to  the  sea. 

The  old  sick  fear  had  surged  up  over  D'Arcy 
even  as  he  flung  back  his  curtain  and  turned  to  the 
bridge.  Even  in  that  moment  he  listened  to  hear 
the  bell  ring  to  the  engine-room,  but  there  was  no 
sound.  Where  was  Somers  ?  He  put  his  hand  on 
the  ladder  rail  as  Laurie  appeared  at  his  side,  with 
the  half-second's  instinctive  pause  for  the  fear  to 
pass  and  leave  him  tensely  strung  as  usual.  But 
her  face  appealing  to  him  shook  his  nerve  as  the 
ship's  danger  had  not  done — he  tried  for  the  old  re- 
covery, and,  mad  with  terror,  realized  that  it  would 
not  come.  He  could  hardly  stand,  and  all  the  train- 
ing of  his  life  could  not  force  his  feet  up  the  ladder. 
He  flung  his  arm  around  the  girl  as  she  clung  to 
him,  and  spoke  in  a  loud  tone  of  confidence  that 
seemed  no  part  of  himself. 

"  There  is  nothin'  to  be  afraid  of.  You  are  quite 
safe — with  me.  I'm  goin' " 

A  second  shudder  through  the  great  boat,  a  sul- 
len roll  in  spite  of  her  mighty  engines  still  trying 
to  thrust  her  steadily  forward,  a  plunge  as  if  the 
Princess  fought  with  her  unknown  death,  and  she 
went  down  as  quick  and  alive  as  ever  were  the 
tribes  of  Korah,  into  her  tomb  of  waters,  while  her 
Master  still  struggled  for  the  impulse  to  try  and 


298  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

save  her.  From  the  moment  when  those  strange 
bows  ground  into  her  side,  to  the  final  plunge  into 
the  yawning  grave  beneath  her,  was  barely  three 
minutes. 

The  unseen  foe  that  had  wrought  the  destruction 
swung  round  but  just  in  time  to  avert  being  ham- 
pered in  the  sinking  of  the  mighty  Liner.  A  heavy, 
big  boat  she  had  looked  from  the  bridge,  crashing 
death  through  the  fog,  but  she  was  smaller  than  the 
ship  she  had  doomed.  Her  crew,  with  dark  horri- 
fied faces,  stood  peering  over  the  side,  their  hands 
already  at  work  to  get  the  boats  out  of  the  davits, 
when  the  voice  of  their  Skipper  ordered  them  to 
wait.  All  help  was  needed  to  ascertain  her  own 
damage.  She  rolled  heavily  on  the  turbulent  water 
stirred  by  that  awful  engulfment.  Her  crew  stared 
silently  at  the  Skipper,  who  had  not  attempted  to 
rescue  any  from  the  doom  he  had  caused. 

"  Man  the  boats  !  " 

His  voice  rang  out  at  last,  and  half  fearfully  the 
boats  were  lowered  into  the  fog  and  the  rocking 
seas.  But  afterwards  they  told  the  tale  in  far-off 
places  round  the  world  where  trade  drove  them, 
of  how  he  stood  at  the  gangway  and  peered  with 
bloodshot  eyes  into  the  drowned  faces  of  the  few 
who  were  rescued.  And  once  when  a  dripping 
bearded  body  was  carried  past  him  he  uttered  a 
fierce  cry,  and  made  a  motion  as  though  to  hurl  it 
back  to  the  unappeased  seas,  but  looking  closer 
muttered  that  it  was  not  he,  and  let  it  pass. 

Of  all  those  fifteen  hundred  on  board  the  Prin- 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  299 

cess,  but  forty  were  rescued  by  the  vessel  which  had 
wrought  her  destruction — the  S.S.  Seagull  of  Hull. 
The  great  Liner  had  gone  down,  with  captain  and 
crew  and  passengers ;  and  somewhere,  on  her  deck 
perhaps,  at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean,  lay  the  two 
bodies  of  a  man  and  a  girl — the  man's  arm  still 
clasping  in  death  the  one  woman  he  was  not  to 
have  in  life. 

****** 

Amongst  the  survivors  was  the  third  Officer  of 
the  Princess,  Charles  Somers,  who  stated  that  at  the 
moment  when  he  felt  the  two  ships  collide,  the  bow- 
sprit of  the  Seagull  had  literally  swept  him  from 
the  bridge,  breaking  the  davits  of  the  for'ard  boat, 
and  tearing  the  dodger  away  as  the  Seagull  swung 
round.  He  had  been  swept  off  as  cleanly  as  a 
broom  might  sweep  a  cobweb  from  the  wall,  and 
had  escaped  with  his  life  by  clinging  to  the  broken 
rigging  of  the  bowsprit  as  he  felt  himself  dragged 
overboard.  He  had  had  no  chance  to  reach  the 
telegraph,  but  in  his  opinion  it  would  have  been  too 
late  to  save  the  ship.  The  Captain  was  not  on  the 
bridge  with  him  at  the  time  of  the  accident.  He 
had  left  him  on  the  watch  about  half-an-hour  be- 
fore, intending  to  return  at  once.  Somers  had  been 
wondering  what  had  detained  him,  for  he  was  always 
most  careful  as  to  keeping  a  double  watch,  particu- 
larly in  a  fog.  He  stated  that  after  Amyas  left 
him,  however,  the  fog  lifted,  and  showed  him  a 
heavy  cargo  boat  about  half-a-mile  away.  She  had 
signalled  by  flashes  that  she  was  the  S.S.  Seagull, 


300  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

and  had  asked  not  only  the  name  of  the  Princess 
but  that  of  her  Captain.  Thinking  that  they  were 
in  some  difficulty,  and  having  no  instructions,  he 
had  signalled  back  Captain  Amyas'  name.  The 
Seagull  had  then  been  put  about,  and  was  running 
parallel  to  the  Princess,  about  a  hundred  yards 
apart.  Her  proximity  had  made  him  anxious,  but 
he  was  not  really  alarmed  until  the  fog  had  thick- 
ened as  suddenly  as  it  had  lifted.  The  lights  of  the 
Seagull  were  wiped  out  as  if  by  a  curtain,  and  be- 
fore he  could  decide  on  any  alteration  of  course  the 
two  boats  had  collided.  The  atmosphere  was  so 
thick  at  the  time  of  the  accident  that  he  had  seen 
nothing  till  the  bowsprit  actually  struck  him,  and 
though  the  fog-horn  had  been  going  incessantly,  it 
had  sounded  muffled  even  on  their  own  boat.  He 
was  keeping  the  watch  on  the  lower  bridge,  the  fog 
for  some  reason  being  rather  less  dense  nearer  the 
water  than  it  was  above,  and  the  speed  had  been 
slowed  down  from  sixteen  to  twelve  knots. 

When  Messrs.  Savernake  had  made  an  inquiry 
into  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  to  satisfy  the 
public  that  clamoured  and  wailed  at  the  glass  doors 
in  Aldgate,  they  published  an  explanation.  To 
their  own  loss,  and  deep  regret  and  sympathy  with 
all  concerned,  the  R.M.S.  Princess  had  been  run 
down  in  the  Channel  by  the  S.S.  Seagull,  owing  to 
the  fog,  the  Seagull's  Captain  being  unable  to 
locate  the  direction  of  the  fog-horn  which  the  sur- 
vivors testified  was  sounding  the  whole  evening. 
A  certain  carelessness  and  vote  of  censure  might 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  301 

be  written  up  against  the  name  of  the  Master  of 
the  Seagull,  Joseph  Benson,  whose  certificate  the 
Board  of  Trade  confiscated  ;  but  it  hardly  mattered, 
because  the  unfortunate  man  was  proved  to  be  of 
unsound  mind,  and  died  in  a  lunatic  asylum  not  six 
months  later.  The  tragedy  which  he  had  caused 
was  said  to  be  quite  sufficient  to  derange  his  mind, 
his  record  from  his  Owners  being  indisputable,  and 
he  himself  well  known  in  every  trading  port  as  one 
of  the  soundest  of  Merchant  Skippers.  The  fog 
was  the  only  explanation  of  his  disaster,  and  even 
the  best  men  may  make  mistakes  under  such  cir- 
cumstances. 

But  behind  locked  doors  in  Savernakes'  offices 
the  chiefs  of  the  Line  had  sat  with  set  faces  and 
grim  mouths,  listening  to  the  ravings  of  this  same 
man  as  he  swore  with  thickened  utterance  that  what 
he  had  done  was  well  done,  and  that  were  it  to  do 
again  he  would  do  it,  for  he  counted  the  hundreds 
of  lives  sacrificed  as  nothing  in  the  fulfilment  of  his 
reckoning  with  one.  As  soon  as  he  learned  that  the 
boat  passing  his  own  in  the  darkness  was  \h&  Princess, 
and  that  Amyas  was  still  her  Master,  he  had  put 
the  Seagull  about,  and  as  the  fog  thickened  and 
prevented  those  on  board  her  seeing  his  intention 
and  avoiding  a  collision,  he  had  run  her  down — run 
her  down  on  the  high  seas,  and  sunk  her  with  in- 
tention. The  impulse  might  well  be  described  as 
temporary  insanity,  but  Joseph  Benson,  rolling  blood- 
shot eyes  at  his  auditors,  laughed  at  the  idea  of  re- 
penting it.  D'Arcy  Amyas  was  Jonah,  and  his  ship 


302  CAPTAIN  AMYAS 

had  gone  to  prove  it  with  all  those  on  board.  The 
story  of  his  life  and  its  sins  and  follies  was  told  in 
red  words  to  the  grim  circle  sitting  in  judgment  after 
his  death ;  but  Savernakes'  kept  the  secret  of  their 
servant,  for  by  dishonouring  his  memory  they  would 
but  bring  discredit  on  themselves. 

It  was  long  remembered  how  Bernard  Savernake 
spoke  on  this  occasion.  His  keen  foresight  and 
common-sense  had  never  been  more  apparent,  and 
as  he  stood  addressing  the  Board  his  words  had  the 
force  and  clearness  of  a  young  man,  though  he  was 
over  seventy. 

"  And,  gentlemen,"  he  said  in  conclusion,  "  Cap- 
tain Amyas  having  gone  before  a  higher  tribunal, 
it  is  beyond  our  power  to  censure  him.  The  publi- 
cation of  such  a  strange  and  horrible  story  would 
only  cause  still  more  bitter  regret  and  indignation 
amongst  those  whose  relatives  or  friends  were  on 
the  ill-starred  boat,  and  we  can  offer  them  no  rep- 
aration. Poor  Benson  is  so  obviously  irresponsible 
for  his  actions  that  the  affair  looks  like  arranging 
itself.  I  can  only  urge  a  vote  of  absolute  silence 
upon  you." 

The  man  to  second  the  vote  was  Sir  Arthur  Hyde, 
the  Chairman.  He  remembered  that  it  was  mainly 
through  his  instrumentality  that  the  doomed  ship 
had  been  given  to  D'Arcy  Amyas,  over  the  heads 
of  older  men,  and  his  face  was  grey  and  grief-stricken 
as  he  inwardly  took  the  blame  upon  himself.  But 
he  forgot  to  whose  influence  he  owed  that  disastrous 
urging  of  Captain  Amyas'  merits  on  the  Board. 


CAPTAIN  AMYAS  303 

Bernard  Savernake  left  the  office  that  day  a 
thoughtful  man,  and  drove  West  to  his  private 
house  in  Kensington  with  fresh  wrinkles  round  his 
eyes,  and  the  half-moon  mouth  strikingly  prom- 
inent. 

"  I  said  I  would  put  off  my  final  judgment  until 
the  eleventh  hour,"  he  said.  "  It  seems  almost  to 
have  been  a  prophecy.  ...  I  wonder  what  it 
was  that  he  wanted  so  badly  as  to  risk  fifteen  hun- 
dred souls  in  trying  to  obtain  it  ?  " 

He  leaned  back  in  the  hansom,  meditating.  His 
cab  was  blocked  in  Piccadilly,  and  a  newsboy,  run- 
ning almost  under  the  horse's  head,  shouted  a 
"  Special "  so  that  the  newsbill  was  really  audible. 

"  More  details  of  the  Princess  disaster ! — 'orrible 
story  by  the  survivors  !  " 

"  But  they  will  not  tell  the  real  story ! "  said  Mr. 
Savernake. 


THE  END 


THE    STORY    OF    EDEN 

By  DOLF  WYLLARDE 

The  N.  Y.  Press:  "One  of  the  most  serious  as  well  as  one  of  the 
most  entertaining  novels  that  has  come  recently  from  the  pen  of  any 
writer  is  this  amazingly  natural  and  well-written  'problem'  novel. 
As  a  piece  of  literary  work  it  is  much  above  the  average.  The 
character  drawing  is  always  excellent.  There  is  not  a  false  note. 
For  many  reasons  'The  Story  of  Eden'  is  a  story  worth  reading." 

The  Spectator:  "The  book  is  interesting  and  the  writing  pleasant 
and  occasionally  almost  brilliant.  The  reader  is  given  a  real  feeling 
of  the  brilliant  sunshine  and  exhilarating  air." 

The  N.  T.  Journal:  "  Daring  but  delightful.  Mr.  Wyllarde's  origi- 
nality in  inflicting  no  condign  punishments  upon  his  sinners  will  be 
appreciated  for  its  truth,  and  his  minor  characters  are  gay,  enter- 
taining, and  clever." 

The  Athenaeum:   "There  is  cleverness  in  the  dialogue." 

The  Chicago  Record-Herald:  "A  daring  novel.  Bold  and  out- 
spoken. A  startling  book  it  is.  Well  written  and  bright,  with 
plenty  of  good  dialogue,  epigrammatic  without  showing  the  wear 
and  tear  of  the  effort.  He  accomplishes  what  he  sets  out  to  do, 
and  does  it  well." 

The  Brooklyn  Life :  "The  story  is  admirably,  at  times  brilliantly, 
written,  and  gives  a  true  picture  of  the  social  life,  made  piquant  by 
plenty  of  plain  speaking." 

The  Baltimore  Sun:  "We  can  praise  Mr.  Wyllarde  for  the  skill 
which  he  has  displayed  in — to  our  mind  —  an  unworthy  cause. 
We  commend  the  book  in  its  literary  aspect.  It  will  prove  a 
painful  book  to  some,  a  repulsive  book  to  many.  It  is  undoubtedly 
artistic,  if  that  can  cover  its  other  sins." 

The  San  Francisco  News-Letter :  "The  style  of  the  story  is  good, 
and  the  descriptions  of  the  country  in  which  it  is  located  are  very 
vivid.  It  is  realistic  but  interesting.  Some  of  the  dialogue  is  very 
epigrammatic  and  snappy.  Has  much  to  recommend  it." 

The  Louisville  Courier-Journal:  "One  of  the  best  novels  of  the 
season.  The  best  pictures  of  social  life  in  the  South  African 
colonies  that  have  appeared  in  any  form,  also  in  the  quality  of  its 
narration." 


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